


Space Odyssey

by Syrtassia



Category: Spectrobes
Genre: (sort of), Action & Romance, Action/Adventure, Blood and Injury, Canon-Typical Violence, Eventual Romance, F/M, Like, Romance, Slow Burn, hehe surprise, i know the fandom is dead, it's a fade to black sort of thing, lots of battle scenes actually, maybe i should write some serious tags for once so people can find this, maybe i'll change that if someone actually reads this, that's not stopping me, the sappy romance is there but there's also a LOT of fighting, there's a lot of Krawl blood involved so maybe uhhh, they bang at some point but i don't get descriptive, ugh fine, yeehaw
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-06
Updated: 2019-07-06
Packaged: 2020-06-23 13:10:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 23,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19702045
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Syrtassia/pseuds/Syrtassia
Summary: You have always dreamed you'd explore space someday. There's nothing you have ever wanted half as badly as the opportunity to sail among the stars and see galaxies all around you. Even the opportunity to go to another planet would do. After all, Earth is dying.Luckily for you, your fate falls from the sky one day on the way home from work...





	1. Earth

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Been a long time since I revisited this site. My internet has been completely gone for a long time, but this fanfic has so far been put together in a matter of about two or three weeks. Maybe less, actually. Anyway, there'll be plenty more than this. It's going to have a more coherent story. Enjoy the myriad plot twists, I did my best.

“… here’s your receipt, and thank you for shopping at Big Buy.”

If there were a way to get any other job in the world, you’d leap at it so quickly, your boss wouldn’t even see you leave. You literally cannot wait to get home and play video games again. That’s your only escape now: video games. There is one series in particular you consider yourself the top expert in: Space Explorers!

There’s nothing you would rather do than explore the vast reaches of space. To be able to look out of the window of a starship and see the vast, endless sea of stars…

But of course, it’s only possible in video games. Interstellar travel hasn’t been managed yet, and you wonder if it ever will. Surely not in your lifetime. Thus, Space Explorers will have to do. Running your very own starship and managing a ragtag crew of explorers on a wonderful adventure spanning so many planets… you’d give anything to really do such a thing and you know it.

Sometimes you wonder if it’s real somewhere out there. Your starship, your crew, just waiting to come down and pick you up. You’ve used every wish you’ve ever had hoping something like that would happen. Little did you know; today would be the day something finally occurs.

During your walk home though a short stretch of the woods, you notice something is just slightly off. The animals around here are usually pretty friendly with hikers in order to get at their snacks, but right now, nothing is scurrying around. The birds are silent, the squirrels, absent. The only sound you can hear is the vague rumbling of machinery, perhaps an engine, further in the forest.

Your curiosity gets the better of you. Creeping up to the clearing, you listen in, not peeking just yet. You hear the distressed beeping of a broken computing mechanism and the labored chugging of a downed engine. And, you hear voices…

“How long till you can get ‘er running again, Jeena?”

“Mmm… few hours. Why don’t you go explore a bit?”

“You saw from orbit, didn’t you? That’s an awful idea. What if we get found?”

“Rallen, we’ve probably already BEEN found. I ran a history check on this planet. It’s a savage place, every government on this entire dirtball is nothing but a bunch of bloodthirsty—did you hear that?!”

In your utter fascination and disbelief, you had started moving forward again, and had apparently stepped on a twig. Of course. You look for a way to escape, but it is too late. The two strangers, who are presumably from space, have found you.

“Wait! Don’t leave. Don’t tell anyone we’re here.”

“We’re not like the police from your planet. We don’t carry weapons at all times—”

Finally speaking up, you say what might be the most stupid response. “Man, this is SO cool. You’re from space. That is awesome.”

They look at you like you have half a brain. The redhead starts giggling like an idiot, and his pink-haired assistant slaps him for it.

“I’m sorry about Rallen, he’s kinda stupid.”

“Hey! No, I’m not! I just—”

“Just laughed at a total stranger, you jerk.”

You raise your hands defensively. “It’s no big deal! I just, I, wow, you’re really from space?!”

The redhead nods. “Yup. We’re members of the Nanairo Planetary Patrol. My name is Rallen, and this is my partner Jeena.”

Jeena waves. “Hi there. You look a bit shocked; do you need to sit down or some—”

“Take me with you!”

“Take you—huh? Oh, I don’t know about that, that sounds… really illegal,” Jeena grumbles. “Does that count as kidnapping? Is that kidnapping, Rallen? What would the Commander think?”

“Please! I hate this place. I don’t care where you’re going, I have never been on a starship and I wanna change that like, right now. Get me off of this awful planet. It’s all crumbling anyway.”

“Is it?” Rallen stops Jeena from rambling any more. “Hey, you know what, Jeena? She’s a local, isn’t she? We can ask her what this place is really like.”

Jeena, looking confused and defeated, shrugs. “Ugh, okay… fine, fine. We just need to ask you a few questions before we make any promises. Rallen, you’re the one who has it memorized, go ahead.”

“Alllright, now we’re talkin’! Okay, c’mere.” All too enthusiastically, Rallen practically drags you into the ship. The interior is lovely, to say the least, with interesting machinery in every corner and lights traveling down clear wires. “Mmkay, first off. How old are you?”

“I’m twenty-two,” you reply, still very distracted by your surroundings.

“What is your government’s legal adulthood age?”

“Eighteen.”

“Drinking age?”

“Twenty-one.”

“How old do you have to be to become a police officer or member of your nation’s army?”

“Eighteen.”

Under his breath, Rallen mutters, “War before alcohol. That is just wrong.” Clearing his throat, he continues his barrage of questions. “Do you have any experience piloting a ship?”

“I don’t even know how to drive.”

“Who is your current leader?”

“Recently assassinated with no stand-in.”

“Yikes, that sounds like ‘fun’… you know what? This interrogation is supposed to be way longer, but I’m gonna skip some questions and ask what I want to actually know about. When you said your planet is crumbling, what did you mean?”

You are more than happy to go off on a long spiel about how corporate greed is advancing climate change. You are young and full of indignant rage over the fact that tigers went extinct last week and the government still won’t put regulations on fossil fuel. Sometime during your probably hours-long rant about the shitty condition of Earth, the ship’s engine stops making that awful racket.

From just outside of the ship, Jeena shouts, “It’s fixed! Let’s get out of here!”

You grab Rallen by the shoulders. “If there is any kindness in your heart, you won’t leave me here to watch this place rot and die. I hate it here. Get me out of here. Please. I’m begging you.”

“You don’t gotta ask me twice.” You can hardly contain your excitement as Rallen leads you over to one of the seats, which is firmly bolted to the floor of the cockpit so that it doesn’t move around whilst in flight. “Stay here. There’s some buttons there that you SHOULD NOT PRESS… unless I tell you otherwise, in which case, you should press pretty much all of them.”

Taking a seat, you repeat, “Don’t press the buttons unless you say so. Got it. Did—did I get your name right? Is it Rallen?”

“Yea, that’s me. Welcome aboard. Hope you weren’t expecting anything fancy, because Jeena and I can’t afford the newest models of patrol cruiser.”

Jeena hears him and responds, “That’s because you’re prone to breaking things, Rallen. And what do you mean, ‘welcome aboard’? You don’t mean…?”

“She’s coming with us, Jeena. We can’t leave her here, the planet’s dying!”

“Like… the whole planet?” Jeena practically rushes over. “You know, I was pretty curious as to why there’s a giant ball of trash floating in the ocean, and the lack of green IS a little startling… so your planet’s really dying? That’s not normal?”

“Not at all,” you sigh. “But no one is doing anything about it. I never thought I’d get to meet anyone from space, but I’m glad I did. I wanna leave this planet before the weather gets too weird to survive, or the air too polluted to breathe. You know, just last year, there was a tornado that laid waste to thousands of miles of land? Totally flattened. The casualties numbered in the tens of thousands. And the year before that, there was a heat wave that melted all the electronics. No one in that area survived, it was insane.”

The two of them listen to your tale in shock and horror.

“… so yea, please get me off of this hell-planet?”

“Absolutely,” they say in unison.


	2. Space

The view of the stars from within a starship is more than you ever hoped for. Rallen had been sitting next to you while Jeena pilots the ship, asking you questions the whole while. Curious guy, it seems. You tell him stories about the world—he seems to be targeting your interests more, asking things about nature and weather and culture.

“You two having fun back there?” Jeena shouts back.

Rallen replies, “Most I’ve had in years. Did you know that girl hyenas have—”

“Geez! Start her off with something safer for work, would you?”

“Whoops! Yeah! And lionesses grow manes when there’s no strong males around, and entire ecosystems grow on dead things—”

“Rallen! I am glad you love the planet we just eagerly rescued this poor woman from, but why not ask something constructive? Or see if she can… I dunno, control a Spectrobe?”

The word “Spectrobe” sends an electric chill down your spine, a feeling you can scarcely describe. It sounds almost familiar. You feel compelled just hearing it…

“Oh, come on Jeena, I hardly believe just anyone we find in a forest is going to be a Spectrobe Master.” Rallen seems dismissive, but you wave at him.

“No. No, yeah, please, show me a Spectrobe. What is a Spectrobe? The word sounds like one I’ve heard before. Spec… Spectrum, spectra, are they… colorful? Like a color spectrum?”

“Yeah, actually. Hardly a shade on ‘em I haven’t seen.”

“Are there any… orange ones?”

“Ooh, yeah, come on, I’ll show you.” Rallen takes your arm and once again almost drags you off. He takes you down into the ship’s cargo hold via a very high-tech elevator, then starts pressing buttons on an odd device on his wrist. A brief flash of light… and before your very eyes appears a beast that looks almost just like a lion, but with odd flame shapes on it and two huge spikes!

The appearance of the creature is not the most shocking part of it. The shocker is the visceral, primal feeling of _understanding_ you get from looking at it. Just seeing it makes you feel like you’ve always belonged right here, in the cargo hold of a strange starship with a redhead you have hardly met.

The beast opens its mouth and exhales a bit of flame, its beautiful blue eyes widening slightly as it approaches you. You haven’t moved yet and don’t intend to at all as the massive animal nuzzles your chest, like a cat scent-marking its owner.

Rallen seems in awe. “Wow. Leopuba likes you. Like… _likes you_ likes you. I have never seen him act like that. It’s like you two have met before.”

“Maybe we have,” you say, stroking its strange fur. “I can’t explain it, but when I saw this… Leopuba, you said?”

“Yup. That is a Leopuba.”

“I felt weird, like I know about this guy somehow. It all feels so familiar.”

Rallen taps a couple other buttons and a communication device pops up from the wrist section of his suit. “Jeena, come down here. You may have been right. Put the ship on autopilot.”

It hardly takes her a few moments to rush down. “What do you mean—holy shit! Leopuba! You brought out a—I thought you’d go for a Child Form, what are you doing!? What if it rejected her!?”

“It didn’t! Look!” He waves at you and the Leopuba. “They’re getting along great. Here, why don’t you… give him one of these?” Again, with the buttons. This time, a shiny red gem appears. It almost seems to be pure ruby! If it is, it’s the biggest damn ruby you have ever seen. You don’t know what it is, but something about the sparkle of gemstones has always made you feel awfully hungry. Maybe your brain thinks it’s rock candy. You’ve always particularly loved that stuff.

“Is it ruby? It looks like ruby.”

“Good eye. That is, in fact, a ruby.” He hands it to you, presumably to give to the Leopuba. You try to give the shiny gem to the Spectrobe, but it pushes it back at you. Rallen squints at the Spectrobe suspiciously. “Huh. Weird. Spectrobes will usually take a mineral from anyone, even if they aren’t a Spectrobe Master.”

“What do they even do? Hoard them?” You hand the gem to Rallen and watch as he gives it to the Leopuba. The Leopuba seems to briefly consider eating it, then instead, gives it to you. Everyone is just as shocked as you are.

“It’s their food. He’s trying to feed you, I think.” Rallen tries to take the ruby from Leopuba, but the beast growls and moves away from him. “Hey! Don’t you take that tone with me, mister. What is up with you today? You’re acting weird…”

Jeena takes your hand and puts it right on the Leopuba’s snout. The creature purrs softly, like an enormous kitten. Of course, because of the animal’s size, the purr is more like a growl. Despite this, you don’t feel afraid of it.

You take the ruby from the Leopuba. It seems content only after you retrieve the gem. It is very shiny and has near-perfect facets. Its teardrop shape catches the light very nicely and it’s as large as your entire hand. “Who cut this gem? It’s beautiful.”

“They all look like that. That’s their natural formation.”

“Wild. How many have you found? And how about other gemstones? Like, uh, emeralds? Sapphire, maybe? Can—can I keep this? Is this for me?” Leopuba nods. “It’s for me? It’s huge.”

“Well, it WAS for Leopuba, but he gave it to you, so I guess it’s yours now. That’s… hmm. Try giving him orders.”

“Leopuba, sit.” The Leopuba instantly sits when you command it to. “Ooh, neat. He’s well-trained.”

“He’s wild. Spectrobes are never trained. He just listens to you. Try another,” Rallen says.

“Uhh, okay. Play dead?” The beast flips onto its side with a huge THUD, sprawling out as if it’s been slain. Its jaw goes slack and its tongue hangs out of its mouth. “Haha, neat.”

“Oh, that’s not just neat. Give him the mineral, and this time, tell him to eat it.”

“Aw, okay. Leopuba, eat this ruby.” It grumbles unhappily, but gets up off its side and takes the mineral from your hand. You can only imagine the kind of jaw strength this animal has as it crunches the gem right in two. Little shards of ruby fall to the floor.

Rallen nods. “Yeah, that adds up… Leopuba here is listening to your orders without question or hesitation. For all intents and purposes, it would seem you have the abilities of a Spectrobe Master.” Kneeling down next to the Leopuba, he ruffles up its fluffy mane. “What do you think, buddy? Is our friend here a Spectrobe Master?” The Leopuba thinks for a moment, then hesitantly nods, as if it had to consider whether or not you make the cut.

Jeena sighs. “Well, you know what that means, Rallen. We’re gonna have to get her her own Prizmod, tell the Commander… and figure out where on this ship she’s gonna sleep, because every Spectrobe Master is indispensable in case of another Krawl attack, which means she’s one of the team now.”

“Krawl? What’s a Krawl?” The word sounds awfully ominous to you. Once again, just like when you had hard the word ‘Spectrobe’, a sense of overwhelming déjà vu hits you like a truck. You know that word, and it fills you with _dread._

You see Rallen flinch. PTSD, maybe? “They’re awful. Tried to destroy our star system like twice now. I’m starting to think they’re just doing it because they hate us. They look like huge, amorphous slime monsters, basically. They feed on literally everything they come across, and they’re extremely resourceful. They’ve been known to devour entire star systems.”

“Wow. That’s… horrifying.” You gently pat the Leopuba. It purrs when you do. The creature’s fur is silky, but seems almost hard somehow. You pat it a little harder. “This is one sturdy-feeling critter. Probably so sturdy from its diet of gemstones, I bet? That explains why it’s so shiny, too, huh…”

“Actually, they’re just like that. Nearly indestructible, all of them, and they’re the only natural predator of Krawl, so we absolutely need them. Think, uh… kinda like hunting dogs. If you know what you’re doing, they’ll listen to you, and they know what they’re doing way better than you do because they’re born and bred for this. Born and bred Krawl-killing machines.”

The more you notice about the Leopuba, the more you are sure this is no exaggeration. You see the way its muscles are set under its skin. This thing is built like an athlete. You see how the crest on its head could be deadly, how even its ornamentations could protect from blows. And the long, tall spikes on its hindquarters…

You gently touch the back of one of these spikes and push it out of simple curiosity. It moves! You push it until it’s level with the creature’s body. The length of it extends the sharp end past the Leopuba’s head, like a lancer’s weapon poised in front of its horse, ready to skewer any unlucky opponent in its way. You push the other one down as well. The ends of those things are incredibly sharp.

“These are for stabbing, aren’t they?” Leopuba nods. “Stabbing and slashing?” He nods again. He seems very self-satisfied and smug about all of this. After all, you have not been very subtle in your admiration of this fine animal. You always have loved wildlife, but you never imagined you’d even get this close to a predator, much less befriend, much less CONTROL one. “You are the single coolest thing I’ve ever looked at, and I was just looking out at space a minute ago.”

“Okay, okay, don’t flatter him too much. That one has always had a bit of an ego.” Leopuba snarls in response to Rallen’s rude remark. “Yeah, whatever, ya traitor. Hmph. There’s a new Spectrobe Master in town and suddenly I’m old news, huh?” Leopuba nods again, eagerly this time. “Oh! I see how it is.”

The Leopuba looks you right in the eyes. You’re sure this shade of blue is as close to the sky on Earth as you’ll ever be seeing again.

A few short beeps from the ship’s system notifies you to something. You don’t know what it is, of course, because you do not know this ship. Or any ship, for that matter.

“Ah. Portal time.”

“ _PORTAL TIME??”_

“Yes, portal time. How do you think we got to your planet? Warp speed? Hah. No, just a portal jump from here is Nanairo, our star system. Does your star system even have a name, now that I think of it?”

“No, just our planets and sun and moon. There’s Mercury, Venus, planet Earth where I’m from, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto—well, Pluto was briefly removed from the list for being too small, but after a lot of outrage, they added it again. The sun is Sol and the moon is Luna. The other planets have a few moons too but I don’t remember all the names. Jupiter alone has at least sixteen.”

“But no name for the whole thing?”

“Probably a designated number for it, but name? I don’t think so. Not that I’ve heard of.”

“Lame. Well, I guess since Earth has gone downhill, Nanairo is your home now?”

“Yeah. I guess it is.”

A loud hum and the ship trembles. Rallen nods. “And that’s the end of the portal. We’re in Nanairo now. Welcome home,” he says with a smile. “We should be landing on Kollin soon. Right, Jeena? You did set a course for Kollin, right?”

“Of course. You’re gonna be needing citizenship papers done if you can expect to live here.”

Now where have you heard that before? “Ugh, more paperwork?”

“Oh yeah, tons. Just kidding, it’s pretty simple. Don’t worry so much.” Rallen pats you on the back. “I’ll help you take care of it. A favor, from one Spectrobe Master to another…”


	3. Kollin

After way more paperwork than you were ever comfortable with, you are finally granted official citizenship on Kollin. You were also taken to meet the NPP’s very own Commander Grant. He was an impatient old man, but seemed more than happy to see that you just so happened to be a Spectrobe Master. What are the odds?

You were given a place in the NPP quarters, just for the sake of convenience. Right next door from Rallen, lucky you—apparently there is a hall just for Spectrobe Masters now, just in case of escaped Spectrobes, so that anyone in the hall can send them back to their owner. Unfortunately, there are not many Spectrobe Masters. There’s Rallen, Aldous (who lives right across from Rallen), and you.

However, because your arrival in Nanairo is being treated like a damn national holiday on account of you being one of the only three Spectrobe Masters they’ve ever known, you are definitely not sleeping tonight. You are in Rallen’s flat, getting extremely drunk with your new best friend and your very large cat.

“How do I play this?!” Rallen tosses his cards on the floor. “I don’t know this one. I give up.”

“It’s literally just Uno. I taught you the rules THREE TIMES.” The Leopuba sitting next to you grumbles, also protesting Rallen’s stupidity.

“I don’t like it! I keep losing!”

“You’re playing it wrooong!” You throw your cards at his face and laugh. You’re damn glad he’s not actually upset about that because it would suck if he was. Guess there’s no way to befriend someone quite like getting drunk on a fine Saturday night.

Leopuba paws the deck over just like a cat. What a little jerk, you love him to death. You wonder just how many other odd Spectrobes you’ll get to meet and work with…

A knock comes at the door. “Hey! It’s Dave! I brought the Prizmod!”

Rallen shouts, “Let yourself in, Dave!” And so Dave lets himself in. He’s a short old man with a lot of machinery on him. This squat little man, who look a bit like Danny DeVito, hands you a six-sided object that looks quite a lot like Rallen’s. Yours, however, was made to order.

It is pitch black with soft golden lighting, and the phrase “I prayed for this” engraved in it, a reminder that this was all once just a wish, a hope, a desire. Just because you have it now doesn’t mean you should ever take it for granted.

“It’s your very own Prizmod. It ain’t fragile, but try to treat it like it is, just in case, ok?” You take the Prizmod. It feels strange in your hand, as if you were always meant to hold one.

“Thanks, uh, Dave. I really appreciate—” Your gratitude is interrupted by Leopuba, who immediately paws at the Prizmod. He disappears in a beam of light, apparently going inside the Prizmod. “Oh my God!” You quickly check the device. Sure enough, Leopuba is in there. How such a large creature fits in such a small device, you may never understand. “Ohhh, he’s okay. Thank God.”

Rallen, who is now on the floor, suggests, “You should name him.”

“Eh, okay. I’mma call him Lancer, then, because he’s got a pair of giant lances on his ass.”

“Ooh, hmm. Lemme think. L-a-n-c-e-r… yup, that’s six. You can only do six-letter names, you know. Keep that in mind.”

“Why six letters?”

“I haven’t got the faintest idea and I’ve been working with Spectrobes for years. You tell me if you ever find the answer to that question,” Rallen laughs.

“So, what’s up with being a Spectrobe Master, actually? Like… you just kill Krawl and… stuff?”

The word Krawl makes Rallen flinch again. Clearly, he has bad memories of the things. “Well, yeah, and then there’s Krux. He’s like, uh… well, he’s a Spectrobe Master like us, except boy, that guy is _warped._ He’s like, like… half-Krawl or something, and he experiments on Spectrobes like they’re nothing.” He seems visibly distressed talking about this. “He’s still at large, too. That’s where my… where, uh, _our job_ lies. You and I, we’re the only ones who can do this.”

Bit of a heavy conversation for your first day. “What are they like? Are they people?”

“You ever seen an amoeba?”

“Yeah, in science class.”

“Think that, now it’s made of ugly black poison sludge and it’s bigger than you are. They wreck everything. Hopes, dreams… lives and families.”

“…bummer.”

“Yeah… I’m almost glad you’ve never had to deal with one. I feel like shit having dragged you into this. Now that we know you’re a Spectrobe Master, they’re gonna deploy you with me, and you’re gonna have to see them pretty often.”

“Oh, don’t you dare blame yourself. I wanted off my planet and you got me out of there. I have a chance of living till fifty now, I’d say that’s plenty of recompense for some big sludge beasts.”

“Well… we’ll wait and see. You’ll see.” He sighs. “…you’ll see.”

~~~

The next morning, you wake up with a considerable headache. What a wild night it was. After the somber Krawl talk, you had gone right back to partying. Somewhere along the way, Lancer got involved as well, and while you had never seen a giant drunken feline before, you sort of hope it will happen again, because it was hilarious.

You roll over and almost impale yourself on one of Lancer’s spikes. Good to see he’s just like a cat, getting in your personal space included. “Lancer, you asshole, get off of me.” The huge kitty grumbles and leaps off of “your” bed. A soft _thud_ alerts you to something you had not considered: whose bed are you sleeping in?

“Ow. Seriously?”

You peek off the edge of the bed. Rallen is on the floor. Apparently, you spent the night in his room. Lancer had just used Rallen as a landing pad. That can’t have been pleasant, considering Lancer weighs over a quarter ton and has pointy claws.

“Ugh… tell me you Nanairans have a hangover cure or something.”

“Actually yes, and I keep some on hand. Third drawer up to your right.” You check the right side of the bed and there’s a dresser. In the third drawer, there’s a bottle labeled with letters you’re not familiar with. Great, you’re gonna have to learn to read this alphabet, aren’t you?

“Do you really get drunk so often that you need to keep these on hand? Know what, never mind that … is this it?” You toss it down to Rallen.

He mutters, “Nope, not those. The other one.”

You hand him the _other_ one.“This one?”

“Uhhh… yup, that looks about right. Wait a second… can’t you read!?”

“I can read English, not whatever this is!”

Rallen bursts out laughing. “Oh my God, I’m going to have to teach you how to read, aren’t I? Faaantastic. Whatever, today’s weapons training. Take one of these and race me outside.”

“W-weapons training? Race you!?”

“Yeah, come on, slowpoke. Workout time.” The speed in which this man literally _flips_ off the floor and starts jogging in place astounds you. Athletics courses around here must be roughly akin to Navy S.E.A.L.S training on Earth if the police force is like this. “You’re practically a soldier now. Time to get ripped. Don’t worry… I’ll hold your hand the whole way through if you need me to.” The cheeky fucker winks before running out the door.

“Hey, wait! You bastard!”

Something shifts underneath you, and before you know it, Lancer has slipped underneath you from behind and is now giving you a ride. You hold on tight to the mighty cat’s shoulders as he races down the hallway. You pass Rallen like it’s no big deal.

“Hey! That’s cheating!”

Both you and Lancer laugh. No way you’re letting him win this one.

~~~

“…and here you go.” Rallen hands you an unmarked box. “It’s yours. Your very own set of Nanairo Planetary Patrol issued armor.”

“Okay, but why.”

“Hah. Okay. Picture this: big, huge fucking Krawl with spikes for arms. Are you gonna want to be strutting around in a tank top and shorts when you run into that?”

“No.”

“Didn’t think so. That’s why you get armor. Oh, also, there’s a section on the wrist where—yep, you already found it. Good.” You had already put on the armor, as you are rather good at getting dressed quickly. The left wrist section of the armor had a very obvious six-sided indent where the Prizmod ought to go.

“Okay good. And here…” He hands you what looks like a tiny SD card. “…is a sword.”

“This is an SD card.”

“Put it in the wrist section. Check this spot here…” He points out a slit in the armor where a few different slots are. “Second to the left. Put it there.”

You insert the tiny memory card. A button above that slot lights up blue.

“Good. Press that, but please point it away from me first.”

You do as instructed. A MASSIVE plasma sword suddenly materializes over your arm. “Yooo, what the fuck? That is so rad.” You swing it around recklessly. It is incredibly light! It hardly weighs a thing!

“Hey!! Be careful where you’re swinging that thing! It can slice titanium like butter.”

“It can WHAT?”

“That was my reaction, too,” Rallen says. “Uh, yep, and here’s… a glove and a blaster! Just for you. Glove goes on the far left, blaster goes just right of the sword.”

You put in those weapons as well. A red and green light appear.

“If those lights are not lit, your weapons are down or malfunctioning. If that happens, uh, well… how fast can you run?”

“I am rather out of shape.”

“Cool, great, that’s fine.” He sounds nervous, so it’s probably not fine. “In that case, better hope Lancer can scoop you up again.”

Lancer grunts in agreement. You’ve only known the Spectrobe for a day and already he’s prepared to go all out for you. You can only wonder how being a Spectrobe Master truly works…

“Okay, now let’s try those other two weapons, shall we? The blaster recoil is hard to handle, so let’s try that one first…”

~~~

“…no sir, I don’t like it.” You feel as if you’ve run a marathon after all of the different weapon exercises and a particularly spirited bout of sparring.

“Ah, you’ll get used to it,” Rallen manages between exhausted sighs. He’s probably just as tired as you are. Maybe it’s the fact that you two were up half the night chatting about nature facts and getting really drunk. You can definitely see why Spectrobes let this guy order them around. You’ve half a mind to let him order you around as well.

It has hardly been a day and you already feel as if you’ve known this wild man all your life.

You don’t doubt you’d die for him just as willingly as his Spectrobes would.


	4. Genshi

You. Love. Lava.

This entire planet is practically heaven. Several times, Rallen had to stop you from dashing to the nearest stream of magma to stare at it. He had brought you here to try out some training. Since the lush jungles are full of plant-based Krawl, it’d be a perfect testing ground for your bond with Lancer.

“Cut it out! You’re gonna fall in if you stand that close.” Chasing after you, exasperated as hell, Rallen once again pulls you away from the stream of lava you have attempted to approach three different times.

“Come on! Lemme look at it! I wanna look at it.”

“Can’t you see it just fine from here!?” In an unexpected turn of events, Rallen directly picks you up and _throws you_ away from the magma. “Surprise! Reflex test.”

You barely manage to right yourself midair before landing on all fours like a cat. “Dude, what the hell kinda steroids are you on!? I’m at LEAST a hundred and fifty pounds and you threw me like I’m a featherweight!”

“It’s not steroids, it’s keeping up on my exercises.” He mutters under his breath, “Something you clearly wouldn’t know about, huh, noodle arms?”

“Oh, bet?” You stance up, fully prepared to tackle this dumb son of a bitch to the ground. Lancer stances with you, growling. “Try me, Mr. It’s Just Exercises.”

That was a very bad choice of words on your part. “BET.” Rallen charges at you with just as much enthusiasm as he charges into battle, and knocks you over easily. You are definitely not fighting fit. You don’t lift. Like, at all.

“…oof. I deserved that.” What you didn’t deserve was the rock you just hit your head against. You reach back and your hand comes away bloody. “God damn, dude, a little restraint for your comrade next time?”

“Oh… sorry.”

Lancer seems very unamused at his new favorite Spectrobe Master sustaining an injury. His fur stands on end… and he stares right past you? You turn to look in the direction the Spectrobe is staring.

And you see your very first Krawl. “Rallen…? Is that…”

He turns to look, and jumps back in shock. “Yeah. Don’t make ANY sudden moves.” He very slowly reaches for his Prizmod to summon a Spectrobe.

The foul beast scoots along slowly, leaving a thick trail of ugly green sludge in its wake. Bits of rotten tree branch poke out from its slimy hide, and small stones are absorbed by its mass as it moves. It grunts with every move, its squishy frame moving in a labored way, as if it had just eaten a large meal. You shudder to think about what, or who, that meal may have been. It turns its head to look in your direction. A singular bloodshot eye spots you, and the horrid thing bares a mouth full of sharp, bloody rocks that it presumably uses as teeth.

“That’s not good.” Not only is blood loss from your head making you a little dizzy, but you are barely familiar with weapons. You try to stand and prepare yourself, but fall back down. Your legs are wobbly with fear…

Lancer rushes over to you, standing over you in a defensive stance. He snarls threateningly at the Krawl, a final warning for it to keep away or be eliminated. The sluggish monster responds by coming closer, but it is not fast. However, what it lacks in speed, it makes up for in size. That thing is enormous. You wonder if it’s one Krawl, or many put together… or perhaps an alpha of its kind?

“Rallen… what do I do?”

“You sit right there. I’m not letting that thing anywhere near you.” He taps the blue button on his suit to summon the plasma sword, then another few on his Prizmod to summon a Spectrobe. The beast appears to be a massive bulldog of some kind, with curly pink fur and blue detail on its face and legs. Its eyes gleam with raw battle spirit. It is clear that this Spectrobe is far more eager a fighter than Lancer. “This is a Komanoto. When it bites down, it doesn’t let go until it’s bitten a chunk off its target. Its fire is strong enough to nearly evaporate Krawl sludge. But most importantly, it’s going to make sure that Krawl right there doesn’t live to see its next meal.” He raises his sword and points at the ugly slug. “Kappa! Bite that thing’s eye out!”

The Spectrobe roars enthusiastically, as if it’s been itching for an order like that since the dawn of time. You could swear you’ve never seen anything as eager as Kappa leaping for the Krawl’s single weeping eye. At least, that’s how it seems until you see Rallen himself in action.

He runs at the Krawl at the same speed you wish you could run away from it. When he swings his sword, it seems almost more of an art form than a fight. You can’t tell if he was trained by warriors or dancers with the way he moves. Swing! There goes a branch. Swing! He slits its slimy throat, which forms back over almost immediately. It seems he is trying to behead it, but its neck is just too thick.

Kappa tries his best to shred the tendrils the Krawl uses to move, but they reform almost instantly. It seems as if this thing is invincible. You can only wonder how Rallen has managed to kill so many of them.

Lancer does not move from his spot standing over you. His number one priority seems to be protecting you. You pat the Spectrobe’s back. “It’s okay, Lancer. I think you should fight it instead of trying to keep me safe. Rallen looks like he needs help, and I don’t feel like a reliable partner sitting here and doing nothing.”

With a reluctant sigh, Lancer sets his mighty spikes forward and rushes into battle with immense speed. The velocity in which he strikes the Krawl sends it reeling. Rallen turns to look at you. You give him a thumbs up. “Got your back, partner!”

“Partner?” He looks back at you and smiles awkwardly. Rallen’s crooked grin is kinda cute, but this is not the time to be getting sentimental. Distractions in battle never end well.

You hear Lancer roar uncomfortably. His left spike seems to be stuck in the Krawl’s slimy body! He tries to pull away repeatedly, but he’s truly trapped. The Krawl moves many stones to the place where Lancer is stuck. You can hardly watch as the stones converge around his left spike and start to crack it to pieces. The Spectrobe roars in pain. You feel powerless to help.

“Rallen! Look… Lancer!”

He turns to see the horror that is occurring. “Oh, shit!” He rushes over and cleanly slices the Krawl, freeing Lancer from its suction grip. However, it is too late. By the time the Krawl’s grip loosens, Lancer hardly has a third of his left spike left.

“Th-that’s going to heal… right!?”

Lancer turns tail and runs back over to protect you instead of fighting. His mighty legs shake with fear and weakness. He shakes his head. That spike is not coming back. You feel absolutely terrible when only moments ago, you were having a great time. “Oh, Lancer, I’m so sorry…” The beast whimpers in response. You hope that spike isn’t a part that feels pain. You only hope it’s like a deer antler, no nerves or anything.

You can only watch as Kappa and Rallen exact revenge on the Krawl. It rejects Lancer’s broken spike, tossing it to the side. It lodges in the dirt. You make a mental note to retrieve it and see what can be done. As Rallen swings his sword here and there, you get an idea…

“Lancer, would you be willing to try again? Hear me out. Look at Rallen. See how he swings his sword? How he spins around?” You encourage the Spectrobe to lean down. “Go for the eye. It seems to be the only solid part. That entire Krawl might fall to pieces if you break it.”

The Spectrobe stands tall as he considers this option. He paws at the ground like a raging bull before running at the Krawl once more, approaching with his right spike raised at half-mast. Rallen seems shocked as the fearless Leopuba leaps into the air, just high enough to reach the Krawl’s eye… and cuts its lens right in two. A sickening shredding sound signals resounding silence.

The Krawl begins to melt, its slime no longer held together by consciousness. As it melts away, it evaporates into rotten purple smoke that reeks of burnt hair and sewage. It is possibly the foulest thing you have ever witnessed. Soon, all that remains of the beast is stones, rotten branches, its half-digested dinner… and a ruined, deflated eye.

Rallen seems to be at a loss. “Lancer… that was genius!”

Lancer nods in your direction, indicating that it was your idea.

Turning to face you instead, Rallen smiles. “Fucking spectacular. You’re over here unable to stand right and you still came up with that idea? That’s fantastic. You’re fantastic.” He runs over to help you up. Your legs are wobbly, but Lancer soon scoops you up on his back to support you. There’s quite a bit of blood coming from the back of your head and it isn’t even the Krawl’s fault. “Agh… let’s get you back to the ship. There’s a heal pod.”

“Wait… Lancer’s spike.” You point over to it. Lancer grumbles.

“I’m afraid there’s no fixing that,” Rallen sighs. “I’ve had a few Spectrobes lose parts to Krawl. I have a Spikan missing his right horn thanks to a huge one that had an enormous rock. Dropped it right onto his head.” He walks up to Lancer to touch the point where his spike broke off. Lancer winces. Apparently, it hurts quite a bit. “That’s awful. I should have been paying more attention.”

“Please. The spike.”

“Alright, fine.” Rallen goes to retrieve the spike. It’s roughly the size of a sword. “What do you want with it, anyway? We can’t put it back on.”

“Ya know how Spectrobes can go into a Prizmod?”

“Well, yeah, I’ve been observing that for years.”

“And how weapons are also stored in the Prizmod?”

“…what are you getting at?”

You smile. “Why waste a perfectly good Spectrobe spike? I’m gonna ask Dave to make that thing into a sword!”

Rallen seems surprised. “Impressive idea… do you think it’d be even half as effective now that it isn’t attached to a Spectrobe?”

“Half as effective as a Spectrobe is still twice as effective as a default sword.”

“You know what? I don’t think I’d rather have anyone else as a battle partner. That’s damn smart. Why didn’t I think of that?” He swings the spike around a couple times. Lancer seems very amused that his loss isn’t a complete waste. “Yeah, it’s pretty light. Slap a handle on this sucker and it’d probably make a great Krawl shank.”

“…can we go back to the ship now?”

“You read my mind.”

~~~

The Genshi night sky has a perfect view of distant Daichi and Kollin. Millions of stars are visible in the flawless, cloudless sky… and you can only wonder if Earth’s sun is one of them. You do not miss Earth. You don’t know if you ever will.

To your left, Lancer lies in the cool moonlight. His wound seems to already have healed—such is the power of a Spectrobe. Of course, it’ll never regenerate, but at least it won’t hurt anymore. On your right, Rallen stares out at the endless sea of stars.

“So… do you think my planet’s sun is in this sky?”

“Maybe. Why… getting homesick?”

“Don’t be silly. Nanairo’s my home now. I won’t miss the pollution and war.” You breathe in the sweet scent of the night air. Genshi’s rich flora have such a pleasant aroma. “I’d rather kill Krawl than people. Earth is a savage place.”

“No kidding. I mean, Nanairo ain’t flawless. If it were, the NPP would have no reason to exist.” Rallen gestures vaguely towards Kollin, bright in the night sky. “See that? It’s home, but also a hotspot for crime. People get robbed, murdered, raped. Just like Earth, except none of that sadness is state-sanctioned. It’s unacceptable. That’s the reason I got a job with the NPP in the first place: to put the cruel and lawless behind bars. The Krawl situation literally just fell from the sky one day.”

“Maybe if Earth got invaded by Krawl, they’d finally quit fighting each other and focus on a real enemy.” You shrug. “But after what I saw today, I don’t think I’d wish the Krawl on anyone.”

“Neither would I.” Rallen scoots slightly closer. “It’s a little cold out… don’t you think?”

Lancer raises his head and growls at Rallen. Rallen scoots back to his previous spot. “Geez, fine…” He seems a little bitter about your Spectrobe’s over-protectiveness.

“You trying to make a move on me, hotshot?” You leer at him suspiciously.

“So what if I am?” He grins widely. You wish you had half the confidence this guy has.

“Bold. Kinda like that, honestly…” You look away from him. “But we haven’t known each other all that long, have we? So I think you’d better cool your jets for now…” You’re very impressed with him, and in all honestly, at least a little attracted to him. Okay, maybe more than a little, but it would be foolish to let anything happen this soon. At least one of you has a voice of reason and it certainly isn’t him.

“…does that mean I have a chance?”

“Maybe someday. Not tonight, not tomorrow, maybe not even this month or year. I’m not into short-lived hookups, you know, I like commitment. And what if you end up liking me a little less after that flame you’ve got for me burns out? You don’t wanna make things awkward, do you?”

“I’m glad one of us has a brain,” Rallen mumbles. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Aw, quit putting yourself down. Where’s that confidence of yours?”

“Resting on your shoulders, mostly.” He smiles. “You show a lot of promise. You’re smart. Good strategist, and your Spectrobes listen to you well. You wonder where my confidence is? Well, I’m _confident_ you’re going places.” He scoots closer again. This guy just doesn’t let up, does he? What a flirt. You feel his arm wrap around your waist, and you don’t particularly feel like telling him not to do that. His embrace is comforting. While you’re looking down at his arm around your waist… you notice a peculiar glow coming from his Prizmod.

“Your Prizmod’s glowing, Rallen.”

“Oh, yeah? I guess you must be sitting right over a fossil. It only glows like that when it’s real close to a Spectrobe. Like, WAY close, so it ain’t Lancer.”

“Does mine do that, too?” You put your Prizmod close to Lancer. It doesn’t react. “Guess not.”

“Might be a module. Why don’t we ask Dave tomorrow? I think he’s vacationing on Daichi…”


	5. Daichi

Dave’s excited expression shows just how jazzed he is to see such an exotic material. “This is a piece right off a Spectrobe, isn’t it? Oooohohohoh, look how sharp it is…!”

Lancer grunts, waving the other spike around. He swishes it to and fro a couple times, mimicking a sword.

Dave pets the Spectrobe’s back, observing its patterns. “Yea, I think I can manage this. Just need a little inspiration. Hope you don’t mind, pretty kitty!” Lancer shakes his head to say he doesn’t mind.

Rallen brings up the topic from the previous night on Genshi. “Hey, Dave, you know how my Prizmod reacts to nearby Spectrobes?” He waves at you. “Can you make hers do that too?”

“Oh, yeah, sure, give it here, it’s real easy. It’s in the options. It’s off by default in case you need to be stealthy and not have it glowing whenever you walk over a fossil.” Tapping a couple buttons, he then hands the Prizmod back to you. “It takes twenty-four hours to activate. This time tomorrow, whenever you approach a Spectrobe, it’ll glow like the moon.”

“Thanks, Dave!”

“Yeah, anyway, leave this spike with me for a while, OK? I think I can make it into a sword by the time your Prizmod starts to glow!”

~~~

Almost a full day has passed. You place the Prizmod on Lancer’s back to see if it works.

“Alright. Three… two… one!” The Prizmod begins to glow with a most wonderful golden color. You smile widely. You’ve always had a thing for shiny, glowing things.

“Works like a charm,” Rallen confirms. He takes the Prizmod off of Lancer’s back and moves away from the Spectrobe. It ceases its glowing. “Yup, everything’s in order. This’ll help you find fossils wherever you go so you can build a proper team. You’ll be wanting Aurora and Flash Spectrobes to complete your arsenal.” He hands the Prizmod back to you. The moment you take it, it begins to glow again. “Huh… weird.” He takes it back and it stops glowing.

“Is it supposed to do that?”

“Nope.”

Lancer watches the two of you intensively. He knows the truth. A truth that lies just under your train of thought, one that no one could have considered.

“I don’t get it. Why do I make it glow? I’m not a Spectrobe.”

Rallen puts his hand on your shoulder. The Prizmod on his wrist glows fiercely. He raises an eyebrow. “Well, I dunno what’s up, then. Both our Prizmods seem to react to you pretty strongly.”

Deciding it’s about time to let the metaphorical cat out of the bag, Lancer trots over to you and paws at the edge of your armor.

“Whatcha need, buddy?”

“Grrrawl.” He bares his fangs in a toothy, leonine grin… and tries to impale you on his remaining spike! You could swear you heard a slight voice behind that growl: (‘Don’t you worry, this won’t hurt a bit!’)

Rallen immediately panics. “Lancer, no! What are you doing!? Humans aren’t immune to the power of Spectrobes! You’re gonna hurt her!”

Sure enough, the spike pierces clean through your armor. You feel its sharp edge poke uncomfortably against your skin. It stops there.

_It stops there._

“Wait… huh?” You back up and the spike moves out of your armor. You reach through the hole. No blood, no injury, no pain. “It didn’t do anything.”

Lancer claws ferociously at your armor. It shreds in several places, but his claws don’t leave a single mark on your skin.

Even Rallen, who is a poor critical thinker, puts two and two together. “Glowing Prizmod… Spectrobe immunity… you’re…!?”

“Am I a Spectrobe!?”

“Wait, wait, waitwaitwait, okay, hold on, back it up…” He squints his eyes shut and tries to focus. “But… how? Why? You look like a human to me. I don’t… wait. Remember when Lancer tried to give you that ruby? Tried to feed it to you?”

“Ye—wait. Lancer… do you know something we don’t?”

Lancer nods. “Grah.” (‘Oh, absolutely.’)

“Lancer… am I a Spectrobe?”

Lancer nods again. “Grumph.” (‘That’s right. You catch on fast.’)

You find yourself at a loss for words. This explains a lot. The way you just don’t sunburn, that odd hunger you feel when you see a sparkling gem. It explains why Lancer is so willing to work with you… and that odd attraction you feel for Rallen. It’s not about romance, it’s because he’s a Spectrobe Master… and you’re a Spectrobe.

“Well… wow. I don’t… why do I look like a human? No, no, this doesn’t make sense. I had a mom and dad, I think? I was raised by people? There’s no way.”

“You _think_ you had parents!?”

“Well, I don’t know if I was adopted or not! I don’t remember a whole lot, actually. I’ve always had a bit of trouble remembering…”

“There’s no w—” Rallen suddenly gets an idea. He lowers his voice. “Get on Lancer’s back.”

You don’t feel compelled to ask why. You simply do it.

“Uh… okay, now get down and come over here.”

You do so. You stand tall in front of him and look him directly in the eyes.

“So you’re not going to object to that or anything?”

“Don’t feel like I have to. Not sure why.”

“I think I know why, and for that same reason, I’m gonna refrain from asking you to do anything.” He tries his best to explain. “Spectrobes impulsively listen to Spectrobe Masters. I’ve successfully commanded several Ultimate Forms, and those guys hardly listen to anyone. This is almost solid proof you’re a Spectrobe.”

“…what the hell are we gonna do with this information?”

Thinking for a moment, Rallen responds, “We’re gonna see just what sort of strange-ass Spectrobe you are and why the _fuck_ you look like a human.”

“And don’t you think you’re going to have to be a little more authoritative to test that?”

“…if you don’t mind.”

~~~

Though you are still not fully sure what is going on, you’re all too eager to find out. After a little bit of messing around out on the field, seeing if you could locate fossils and minerals like a Child Form, you had figured out that that’s certainly not what you are. You had also finally gotten to satisfy your curiosity on why the sparkle of gems makes you feel hungry—and it turns out it’s because you are able to eat them. Quite disappointingly, they just taste like rocks. (Not that you mind that—you were pretty weird as a kid and probably ate a couple of rocks anyway.) However, just one ruby had brought on a very large change. It felt like you’d just had ten energy drinks and made you feel like you could fistfight a Krawl and win.

The whole situation seems to make Rallen slightly uncomfortable. Just a day before, he was sure you were a Spectrobe Master like him. He felt like he finally had someone to understand what he deals with—only to find out it’s a whole different ball game and you were never a Master in the first place. Just a severely under-trained Spectrobe, so far from your cause that you felt empty and tired and lost.

Back on Earth, you felt drained because the warm light of Nanairo had never shone upon you. The warm light of _home._ You craved the sight of the stars every day of your doldrum life in the city because you were _meant_ to travel among them. You didn’t dream of adventure, you pined for your true home. You had belonged in Nanairo all this time, and now you were finally here.

Now here you were, hanging out in a lab system incubator in a simulated habitat with the man that is apparently your Master. You had spent an awful long time sitting with him in complete silence, contemplating why you are what you are and just how the hell you ended up that far away from Nanairo, that far away from your kin.

One thing had been on your mind ever since that moment when you discovered your true nature. That one thing fills you with dread. Finally, it becomes too much to bear.

“…you don’t see me as an animal now… do you?”

Rallen seems shocked you’d even think that. “Absolutely not! Where did that come from? No, no, surely not. I mean, this is all a little weird, but I definitely don’t think of you that way. If anything, I’m just… fascinated? Confused? Maybe impressed. A little lost.” He shakes his head. “Ugh, fine, I’m a little worried about something. I thought we were just good friends… do you only like me because that’s your nature? Is it because you’re a Spectrobe? I mean, I know a lot of people find me unbearable…”

“Well, you can get that thought out of your head right away.” It honestly feels great to clear the air on this matter. “Sure, I feel a little compelled when I’m around you, but it’s nothing like that. Hey—why don’t we ask Lancer about this? I’m sure he can back me up on this one.”

Rallen shouts over to the Spectrobe, who is currently on the other side of the field training. “Hey! You wanna come give us some of your ancient insight?”

Lancer trots over and sits with the two of you. He nods to you, acknowledging you not as a Master, but as an equal. A fellow being of light, natural enemy of the blighted Krawl.

“Hey, buddy. You know what it’s like for Spectrobes—for _us,_ I mean. Tell him like it is. Our loyalty isn’t blind, is it?”

Lancer shakes his head.

“I think it’s about trust. The moment you got me off of Earth, I felt like I could trust you, because you trusted me. Not because of some Spectrobe Master mumbo jumbo nonsense, it’s because you finally got me out of that hellhole like I’ve been waiting to do for my whole life. I could have been any kind of person. A psycho, a murderer. But you saw through me. You trusted me.”

“…that adds up, yeah.”

“It’s like any other relationship. It’s all in the bond of trust. Well, okay, and I’m fond of your charismatic personality…” You blush a little. Admitting this feels especially strange now. Though, it also feels different somehow. It feels more natural knowing just which of your feelings is which.

Lancer rolls his eyes and pushes you closer to Rallen.

“H-hey, cut that out.”

“Grawl.” (‘Hush. You know you wanted to.’)

“Who said, sassy-pants!?”

“Grr.” (‘Maybe you don’t get it yet, but I can read you like a book.’)

Rallen gladly pulls you closer. Seems his feelings haven’t changed. “Hah, don’t tell me you can understand his grumbly nonsense?”

“Actually…”

“Rawr.” (‘Tell him he did a fine job facing off with Gronos.’)

“Who’s Gronos?”

Squinting, Rallen asks, “How could you possibly know that name? Did Lancer say it?”

“Yeah, he said you did great when you fought him.”

“I never fought him. Lancer, you did that.”

“Grumble.” (‘And who was it that ordered me to? Who was it that directed me?’)

You relay the message.

“Wow. I guess you can talk to Spectrobes, huh? Maybe you can ask Mess why he’s so grumpy.”

“Who’s Mess?” That doesn’t sound like a name given out of kindness. Maybe he’s mad that he’s been named after a disorderly setting.

“One of the rarest Spectrobes in the universe… a Mossax. But maybe we ought not worry about that just yet. I guess I still have to train you, huh? Except not in the use of weapons, but rather, in the use of your own latent strength. I wonder if you have an element.”

“Well… I like fire. And I like hot colors. And remember when I tried to pretty much jump into that lava?”

Lancer grumbles softly. (‘You are Corona like me, that’s why. A soul full of passion, a heart of gold, and more strength than you realize.’)

“Lancer said I’m Corona.”

Rallen nods. “Thank you, Lancer. Anything else?”

“Grawr.” (‘I’m no matchmaker, but you two look nice together.’)

“Lancer, oh my God,” you laugh nervously. “I’m not repeating that.”

“Grawr rawr. Grawr rawr. Grawr rawr…” (‘Say it! Say it! Say it!’)

“Cut it out with the chanting! Ugh, fine. He thinks we’d be a cute couple.”

Rallen blushes and looks away. “Oh, really? Well, no pressure…”

“Now’s not the time. Don’t you think we should try to figure out what I do?”

“Well… if you’re Corona, let’s head somewhere with a lot of Aurora Krawl, yeah?”

~~~

You stand strong in a flowing field on Daichi. Various Krawl roam the area, but they seem agitated. Nervous. Perhaps it is the sight of you, astride your comrade Lancer, waiting to give the fiends a run for their money.

Lancer communicates. (‘Remember. It’s like a mother bird pushing her young from the nest. You can only learn to fly in the face of imminent death. See these Krawl. Feel your inner fire. Understand that it is kill or be killed. Nothing in this field will hesitate to eviscerate you, so you must not hesitate to eviscerate them.’) Carrying you further afield, he spots a lone Krawl. Power in numbers will not save this one. (‘Do not be nervous or afraid. They are beasts of shadow, and you… you are a creature of the light. Sunshine given form. You are power made flesh and you can bring that forth. Feel it within you.’) Lancer unceremoniously dumps you off of his back. (‘Have you learned how to fight before in any way? There may be something new in your movements now, now that you have felt the Nanairan sun and tasted minerals. You have it in your veins now: the light that fuels our kind. All you need to do is free it.’)

“I don’t know, Lancer, this seems—”

Lancer growls and aims his spike at you. (‘No! No fear. No uncertainty. See that Krawl. Understand its heartless nature. Feel its wrath. _Mirror_ that wrath. Clash with it. Fight. Succeed. Do it now. I will watch your back.’)

Though you feel afraid yet, you slowly approach the Krawl. It sees you, but seems to only stare. Perhaps it knows what you are and fears to fight you alone. _But if it fears me… that means I am a threat._

You fake-lunge at it and it flinches. However, upon recovery from the scare, it hisses, a horrible, gurgling noise. You have made it angry.

“Come on then, you leafy bitch. Why don’t you show me what you’re made of?”

The Krawl makes a hideous screech and charges at you. In the nick of time, you dodge out of the way. It screeches to a halt and tries to regain its footing. The furious creature gets up, panting ugly purple smoke from its barely-defined breathing hole.

_See the Krawl. Feel my inner fire._

A sense of determination fills you. The Nanairan sun shines hot in the sky. This is just one Krawl. Perhaps you can strangle it…

You feel the ground shift under your feet, as if guiding your moves. This must be the instinct you require. This is it: the Krawl-killing drive that has allowed the Spectrobes to survive the test of time. You take on a wide stance, like a sumo wrestler. As soon as you bring your foot down upon the earth, a _massive_ column of stone rockets forth from it.

_Did I do that?_

The Krawl stances up again. It’s time to bring your A-game. As it rushes at you, you perform a spin and punch the ground with all your might.

The ground cracks. A spray of blazing lava bathes the Krawl in burning light. Its slippery purple flesh burns as the magma pools around it. The sound of its scream is gruesome, but a necessary discomfort. Between the hot sun overhead and the sizzling magma below it, the Krawl has no shadow to comfort it, no darkness to recover in. It melts away like the other Krawl whose death you witnessed.

Lancer comes to admire your handiwork, first checking the sturdiness of the stone pillar, then pawing at the pool of Krawl-tainted lava. (‘Fine job for your first try. Volcanic powers, tectonic strength… I wager with more training, you could probably form your own cinder cone. But this is a dangerous power to play with. It does not come from you directly, but from what you do to your surroundings. Aim wrong and you will send me flying, or worse, you may hurt the Master. That would leave us nigh defenseless. You don’t want that.’) He nods, continuing his explanation. (‘Without a Master, a Spectrobe has little purpose. They enter a deep depression for lack of companionship and pine away. From there, they lose power, devolve, and finally fossilize, returning to the earth until a Master comes to give them the warmth of friendship and companionship once more.’)

“…wack.” You look down at your hands. All this time, you’ve had the latent power to make _fucking eruptions,_ and you had to resort to working at Big Buy for a living. Eating Top Ramen every night when you’re meant to eat shining gemstones. But most of all, you’ve been without a Spectrobe Master all your life… does this mean your depression will finally clear up? It’s always been pretty bad.

The communications device near your Prizmod starts to flash red. It’s an emergency transmission… from Rallen!

[Where have you gone!? You’ve got me worried sick!]

“Oh! Lancer took me out to a different field, off to the west. You didn’t see us leave?”

[That field is _swarming_ with Krawl! You can’t take them all on alone…]

“Hey, who said? Lancer just didn’t want you to be near when I figured out my powers, in case they’re dangerous. And guess what? They’re dangerous. I just made the freaking ground move. I fried a Krawl with lava just now.”

[…wait, really?]

“Yeah! I was like, _pow_ , and I stomped the ground, and this HUGE stone column shot out of the ground! And I went _whoosh_ and spun around and _whack_ , I punched the ground and it freaking cracked open! And a bunch of lava came out and pretty much melted the Krawl on contact.”

[I… wow. That’s incredible. Good job.] He pauses for a bit. [But when you guys are done out there, come right back to the ship, okay? We have to tell Commander Grant. He gets really grumpy if we don’t tell him what’s going on.]

“Alright. I’m just gonna use the Krawl in this field as target practice first, mmkay? And then I want you to come see, because I feel like it’s going to leave a whole new land formation—” As you speak, a loud grinding behind you startles you. The stone column you created slips back into its place in the ground. The lava seems to melt back into the ground, or perhaps it’s special lava that evaporates? “Actually nevermind. Looks like my attacks don’t stay. Uh, does lava evaporate? Is it supposed to evaporate?”

[Maybe it’s special lava?]

“You know what, that’s exactly what I was thinking.” You peer out at the field of Krawl. After gaining some understanding of your powers, you feel as if you can hardly contain that inner drive within you that calls for you to destroy them. “I’mma burn these sons of bitches.”

[That’s what I like to hear! But… please, try not to exert yourself, okay?] The concern in Rallen’s voice seems genuine. [I don’t want Lancer to have to carry you home with a pulled muscle or something. That’d really suck.]

“I’ll try my best.”

[Stay safe out there.] The transmission ends.

Lancer gets your attention once more. (‘We have a field of Krawl to eliminate, comrade. It is time to get a hold on those powers of yours.’)

“Age before beauty, old man. You gotta practice fighting without your other spike…”

~~~

“We’re hooome!”

“Grawl!” (‘Oh, Master, you should have seen it. She did so well. Wait, you can’t understand me. That’s inconvenient. Hey! Tell him I said you did well!’)

“Lancer said I did a good job.”

Rallen doesn’t even look up from the lab system. Seems he’s busy cleaning a fossil. “How many Krawl were out there, anyway? Fifty, sixty?”

“Ooh, I wasn’t counting. I speared a few on stone spikes and melted at least thirty of them.”

“Rah.” (‘I was counting. There were precisely three hundred and forty-seven.’)

“Oh, really? Huh. That’s more than I thought. Guess I got lost in it.” You nod. “Lancer was keeping count. He said there were precisely three hundred and forty-seven!”

Rallen almost drops his drill. “Precisely… what!? Three… HUNDRED? And you two killed them all alone?” He seems to be hasty in completing the cleaning of the fossil. He promptly hands it to you. “That’s outstanding!”

“Hey, why’d you give it to me?”

“I have a theory. I want you to try to talk to that fossil.”

“Gruh?” (‘But she’s a Spectrobe, not a Master.’)

“Like, what am I supposed to say?” You hold the stony fossil close. It’s cold, but a faint warmth from deep within alerts you to the life trapped inside. “Is it just a wake-up call?”

“Yeah. Tell it about the Krawl you killed or something, because that’s a story I’d like to hear too. Three hundred and forty-seven… that’s almost as many as I took on during the battle of Meido, and I had six Spectrobes at my side. We struggled to defeat all of them.”

“Hmm…” You stare intently at the fossil. “Well… moment of truth, little dude. Am I one of you, am I like Rallen, or am I a bit of both? I’d sure love to see you up and running, fighting at my side. How big will you grow? Can ya take on three hundred or more like me?” The fossil begins to glow just slightly. “Yeah, that’s the spirit. Even if I’m not a Master, you’re right near one. You won’t be alone anymore. You’re surrounded by friends.” The fossil’s glow intensifies and it begins to crack.

Flakes of thin stone fall away from the newly-awakened Spectrobe. Its antennae unfurl and its odd proboscis lifts as it yawns for the first time in what might be centuries. Its purple, spotty skin reminds you of something from a storybook.

It looks up at you. “Squeak.” ~Good morning.~

“Good morning to you too. Except, it’s night. You’re on Daichi.”

“Bwah.” ~Thanks for the info. Say, you’re one weird-looking Spectrobe Master. Your voice pulled me from sleep, but you’ve got this… almost Corona aura to you. And what was that about Krawl? Those things causing problems again?~

“When aren’t they? Hey, Rallen, don’t s’pose you got some rubies for the little dude?”

“Bwuh.” ~Watch it there. I’m probably older than you. Hehehe. Respect your elders. And what’s that about “dude”? I’m a girl.~

“Those don’t grow on trees, you know! I have some more basic stuff for Child Forms. How much of a meal do you think you’ll need before you evolve, buddy? You can’t tell me directly, I know, but you’re in the arms of someone who can translate.”

“Bwee bwah.” ~Ehhh, I’d say four minerals will do. Four and a nap.~

“Four minerals and a nap,” you translate.

“Easy. Let’s get you in an incubator.”

“Hsssss.” ~You’re not my Master, she is.~

“She said you’re not her Master.” You pet the Spectrobe’s odd antennae. “Which means I am the Master. What’s going on here, I wonder?”

“Kwee wee.” ~I can tell you.~

“You can?” Finally, someone with answers. This Spectrobe must be truly ancient to know such a secret. All this mystery will finally come apart.

The little Spectrobe nods. “Bweeah.” ~You are an Alpha Spectrobe. You are simultaneously Spectrobe and Master. You are a leader. Your form is chosen by the nature of your heart. When ferocity fills you, your light may take a new shape. Do not be afraid when this happens.~

“The nature of my heart?”

“Kwargh.” ~Yes. When your deepest desire is the companionship of a Master, you shall appear as human, so that you may blend in and meet many new people. When you are finally strong enough to take on mighty battles, this form may shift. You might gain claws. Fangs. Spikes, like your brother here, or wings. You will become a behemoth creature, most likely. Your form will be twice the size or more than an Evolved Form.~

You relay the message to Rallen. “She said I’m an Alpha Spectrobe and that my form is chosen by my deepest desires. Apparently, I’m human because I’m lonely.”

Rallen speaks on impulse. “I can change that.”

“Maybe later. I’ll think about it.”

“Gwuh.” ~Ooh, bold. I like him.~

“Yeah, me too.” You smile at Rallen. “Fortune favors the bold, as they say on Earth. Don’t you ever change, or your luck will too.” Turning your attention back to the Spectrobe, you ask, “So what are you? Can you tell me a bit about yourself?”

“Bwalalah.” ~I am a Mossari. I will evolve into a Mossarito, then a Mossax.~

You perk up. “Mossax, where have I heard that before? Rallen, don’t you have a Mossax?”

“Kwargh!?” ~No way! Maybe I know him!~

“Well then, let’s get you into the same incubator so you two can hang out!”


	6. Nessa

Almost a month and countless hours of training later, your Mossari had fully evolved into a Mossax. She and the Mossax named Mess had become very good friends. You had gained a lot of control over your powers and melted plenty of Krawl down into their base elements. And of course, at long last, you had figured out how to read the Nanairan alphabet.

The situation with Rallen, however, had become rather complicated. Now that you were both over the initial oddity of being a Spectrobe, he had gone right back to pursuing you. Except now, he was far more persistent with it.

“Just let me take you out for dinner or something?”

“Rallen, I eat minerals.”

“…right. Fuck. I dunno, coffee?”

“You’re really reaching for me, aren’t you?”

“Yes.” Rallen looks you right in the eyes. “You don’t mind that, do you?”

“Only slightly.” After a little bit of training on your own, you had learned to resist his influence as a Spectrobe Master. However, you still had that burning urge, and it concerns you. If he asks you to do something you already particularly want to do, you know you wouldn’t be able to resist.

_God forbid he asks you to kiss him._

You _do_ want to give him a chance. You want to give him plenty more than just a chance, you want to give him yourself entirely. But that would be a dangerous thing to do so soon. Lancer had given you a talk as to why.

_(‘Attraction, especially new attraction, is a very dangerous thing on the battlefield. Remember why I lost my left spike? It was because Rallen was not watching my back. Imagine what would happen if he were even more focused on you. Imagine if you were focused on him as well. The Krawl would overwhelm us entirely.’)_

_“And what if you are wrong and we end up being_ more _careful?”_

_(‘I will not argue against that theory, as you may be right. But it is best not to try until you have both calmed down…’)_

But that’s just it. You feel as if you’ve calmed down plenty.

“You know what, Rallen?”

“Hm?”

“I miss the taste of real food. DO take me out to dinner. Lancer told me it was a bad idea, but I’m full of bad ideas.”

“For real?”

“Hell yeah.”

“What are we waiting for? I know a really great sushi joint over on Nessa, in Lilton City…”

~~~

“So how the hell do they get fish on a desert planet?” The sushi IS amazing, but definitely confusing. Where’s the fish from? Is it fresh? How the hell did Nanairo get rice and crab and avocados and seaweed? You just don’t get it.

“Space travel’s real quick. They import some from Genshi, Daichi, and a lot from Kollin. Nessa’s main export is gemstones.”

You nod, stuffing another bite of sushi into your mouth. You are not a messy eater, but you are quick. Mostly, you are doing it to see if Rallen is bothered by your poor manners. He is not. In fact, if anything, he seems fascinated that you can open your mouth that wide. You are not fond of the implications of that particular fixation.

“You’re going to town on that roll.” Judging by the tone of his voice, he is either intimidated or very amused. You think it’s the second.

“Izzat bad? I’m just… you get real bored of the taste of minerals after about five of ‘em.”

“You know, I’m curious. What DO they taste like?”

“The shiny ones just taste like dirt,” you say, reflecting on your experiences. “The attack boosters are spicy. The defense boosters are kind of minty. Life boosters get me slightly drunk and are… unpleasant. It’s hard to describe. Like… think of the least ripe banana you’ve ever eaten, and it’s twice as bitter as that.” You continue stuffing your face with sushi. “Either way, I have eaten way too many damn ass rocks in this last month.”

He laughs. “Hey, if it’s that boring…” He waves over to the waiter. “Yo, can we get some sake over here? Cherry blossom?”

“Oh, classy. Buying me a drink? Not very subtle, _Master,_ ” you tease.

“You said you’re getting bored. Let’s make today interesting.”

It doesn’t take the waiter very long to bring over the alcohol. You look Rallen directly in the eye before chugging the entire bottle you were given. All in one go.

“…out-fucking-standing. You’re gonna drink me under the table, girl…”

“Oh really?”

“Heheheh…”

~~~

Apparently, you are a lightweight, and your tolerance is low enough that Rallen has to carry you out of the sushi restaurant. You cling to him closely.

“Whooooops.”

“I’d have gotten you a smaller bottle if I’d known you’re intolerant. Why don’t you get Lancer to give you a ride?”

“No way. Big kitty’s gonna be mad that I ignored his weird logic advice.” A drunken giggle escapes you. “Mmm, you know what, though? Fuck logic. You’re looking really damn good right about now… you know, I weigh quite a bit, and you can just lift me no problem? Oh yeah, and remember that time you threw me? Bet you’re totally ripped under those clothes…”

Rallen blushes, clearly flattered. “Geez, can you at least save the compliments for when we’re alone? But thanks anyways…” He kisses you on the cheek.

“Hey, about that, when we’re alone together…?” In your drunkenness, your inhibitions are all but gone. You tug at the collar of his shirt. “What do you say we break some of this tension between us? No one has to know. Where I’m from, casual sex is pretty common…”

“I dunno. I’m buzzed, and you’re _hammered._ Even I know that idea is awful.” Without warning, he takes your Prizmod. “Yoink.”

“Hey, wait—” Too late. He summons Lancer.

Lancer’s first sight is Rallen holding you in his arms, with your hand still nearly stuck down his shirt. He grumbles slightly and it intensifies into a quiet roar. (‘Yyyyoooou idiots. Are you trying to make yourselves easier to distract and kill?’)

You furrow your brow. “Hey! Who’s the Alpha here, you or me?”

Despite your protests, Rallen puts you on Lancer’s back. Lancer grumbles. (‘You reek of alcohol and pheromones. Hardly a capable Alpha at the moment. Just what were you planning to do? Mate him? What an awful idea. What a stupid idea.’)

“You could say that. But ‘mate’ sounds awfully devoid of emotion, so not quite.”

Rallen pats Lancer’s head. “Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. She told me you were against this and I went and convinced her anyway. I’m such an enabler…”

(‘Well well well. An honest man, owning up to his mistakes. Hey, you know what? Ask him what exactly he’s after. Ask him if he likes you or just your body.’)

“Lancer wonders if you wanna love me or just fuck me.”

Without skipping a beat, Rallen says, “Too soon to say. Mostly, I’m just trying to get closer to her. Figure out if we’re compatible. Totally cool if we’re not, I don’t think it’ll get awkward.”

Squinting up at the Spectrobe Master, Lancer purrs. (‘And he doesn’t smell like he’s lying, either. Egh, whatever. Maybe it isn’t my business to interfere with what sort of rapport a Master shares with an Alpha. My question for you is, can you ignore his orders, or is your compulsion too strong?’)

“I’m building a tolerance.”

Rallen interrupts, “What, to alcohol? No you ain’t.”

“None ya business.”

(‘Don’t let him do anything you wouldn’t let him do sober, okay? Anyway, tell him to call up a ride or summon a Spectrobe. I’m taking you home full tilt, so I hope you have a good grip.’) You coil your arms around the Spectrobe’s neck very tightly. (‘But don’t strangle me! Do you forget your strength!?’)

“…my bad.”


	7. Kollin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> WHOOPS MY HAND SLIPPED

Lancer had only given you a ride to the patrol cruiser. From there, you had to find a seat for the flight back to Kollin. By the time you make it back to the living quarters, you and Rallen had already flirted with each other heavily enough for him to get frisky. Whether or not this is a bad idea is none of your concern. Your main concern right now is what this man looks like naked. However, he doesn’t seem half as eager as you are. Does he have fantastic restraint or is he just not as interested?

He closes the door behind him as soon as you enter the room. “Ah, home at last! Anyway, what’s on the agenda? Another game of Uno in which you absolutely destroy me? Sit around and do nothing at all? I’m down for whatever.”

“Uhhh… Strip poker.” You grin widely. “Spin the bottle. Truth or dare.”

“…now which one of us was the bold one again? This is very unlike you.”

“Slaying Krawl has me all stressed out, you know…”

“Alright, see, I’ve been nice about it so far, but I’m gonna have to turn you down on your _very generous_ offer…” There’s a glimmer of mischief in his eye. “…for now.”

“That’sssss fair,” you say in place of a complaint.

“But if you are really all that stressed, would ya settle for a back rub?”

You get the feeling he’s just teasing you at this point. “Right, like that won’t make me absolutely melt for you anyway.”

“I know what I’m getting myself into.” You figured he’d be a little nicer about it, but when he pushes you slightly to get you to lean forward, there’s something almost aggressive behind it. “Can’t help ya if you’re sitting up straight. Come on, _forward.”_

“Good Lord, alright. What is with you? You just don’t like me calling the shots, do you?”

Rallen says, “I’m used to being the only Master around here, you know. Don’t get it twisted,” he whispers, leaning in closer, “Whatever happens tonight is _my call,_ you understand?”

You think you get what’s really going on here. He DOES want it; he just wants you to give in first. Because of _course_ his ego won’t allow for someone else being in charge. You can’t really complain, though, because you’re starting to feel a whole different kind of inner fire when he starts rubbing the tension out of your sore muscles.

“You’re killing me, Rallen, you know that?”

“How so?” He reaches further down, going well past your hips and reaching for your thighs.

Your breath catches in your throat. You stutter, “F-feels like y-you’re leading me on…” He’s hardly done anything to you, but you’re too drunk to take that into consideration. All you know is you’re burning for him something _fierce._

He doesn’t respond to your shaky protests. Instead, he starts to kiss your neck, which of course only makes this situation worse (better?) for you. He murmurs, “Still feeling lead on, or do I need to get a little more heavy-handed with you?”

“Just fuck me if you’re going to, you jerk.”

This seems to set something off in Rallen’s mood. His voice lowers. “Why don’t you ask me again? Use your manners. What’s the magic word?”

“You’re an asshole. _Please_ fuck me.”

He turns away to lock the door. “You sure? I’m not gentle. I won’t go easy on you.”

“Do it. You’ve been leading up to it all day, so what’s the problem?”

“One more time. You consent to this, and I’m gonna end up marking you up a little. I’ve got at _least_ three years of no relief behind my belt and you’re begging to be on the receiving end of that.” The way he grabs at your thighs suggests he’s not messing around. What a man, no restraint in a fight and a bit too much for his almost-lover.

“Then wreck me, what are you waiting for!?”

“Awful choice on your part, really…”

~~~

You wake the next morning feeling even more sore than you did before. Your hair is a tangled mess and you can _distinctly_ feel at least three different places on your neck where Rallen bit you—and that’s not to mention what he did to your back, which probably looks just as bad as it feels. He has twice as much passion in bed as he does in battle.

But… where the hell did he go? You’re alone in bed and his clothes aren’t where they were the night before. That sucks. You wonder if he ditched you on purpose… until you see the note and a sports drink he left on the nightstand.

‘Commander had some urgent business he called me in for. Sorry I’m not there, wish I could be, but I don’t think I could just call in sick after an emergency transmission. Stay hydrated. XOXO, Rallen’

Well, at least he’s considerate, but his handwriting could do for a little improvement. Nah, maybe he was just in a hurry. What could the Commander possibly—

Your communication device goes off. Oh no, you definitely don’t want to be seen like this over a hologram. Too late, the transmission opens automatically. It’s… Commander Grant?

[You there. You—oh, huh, wow, you look a little disheveled. Never mind that! We need you in the office soon, if not _immediately._ I know you’re not enlisted in the NPP, but Officer Rallen is, and if I have any understanding of your relationship with him, he’s going to need your help.]

“What’s the rush, G?”

[Please refrain from calling me that. It’s _Commander_ G to you,] he jokes. [From what Officer Rallen has told me, you are some form of Spectrobe, and an outstandingly powerful one at that. We have need of your powers. Dire need. A Krawl has surfaced on Nessa,] he says, lowering his voice so that no one in the office will hear him, [and it is very, very large. It is headed directly for Lilton City.]

You facepalm. “Aw man, not Lilton. I really like it there.”

[Which is exactly why we need your assistance. Feel free to get yourself in order first, but try to get here in a maximum of two hours.] The transmission ends.

In all honesty, you are excited. You’ve been training for ages and you’ll finally get to exercise your strength. However, the idea of having to fight in your current condition is slightly intimidating.

_Not like there’s any time to worry about that._

~~~

You rush into the office, your hair not even dry from the speed-shower you took.

Commander Grant checks the time. “Thirty minutes. Very impressive.”

“I heard that you need me and knew that we have no time to spare,” you pant, exhausted from your run down the hall. _Giant Krawl. Can’t wait!_

When Rallen spots what he did to your neck the night before, he looks away immediately. Unfortunately, Commander Grant sees it too.

“I can see you’ve already been busy training. Those marks are pretty serious. When you fight this Krawl, try not to get struck. We believe it may have acid blood, and its carapace is very tough.”

“Krawl didn’t do that,” Rallen says. “Her track record in battle is perfect.”

“Then what—actually never mind. I get a feeling I don’t want to hear the answer to that question.” Commander Grant shakes his head. He catches on pretty fast.

You laugh nervously. “Rallen, you _could_ have kept your mouth shut.”

“Ah-ah-ah, I don’t want to hear it,” The Commander says, “Not listening. Go to Nessa. Kill the Krawl. Those are your orders. Stay out of trouble, don’t get distracted, the usual. Especially you, _Officer,_ ” he says with an edge of contempt. “No distractions. Eyes on the enemy, _not the girl.”_

“Yyyyyes sir,” Rallen says, still staring at you a little. Lancer was right. Maybe this wasn’t the greatest idea.

From the other side of the office, someone on a computer shouts, “Intel and data suggest this Krawl is too strong for even your best-trained Spectrobes to take on. Keep them in the Prizmod.”

This new information distresses Rallen. “Then why the hell are you sending her against that thing!?” Uh oh. Now he’s being protective. You can damn well protect yourself.

“We’ve done historical research on Alpha Spectrobes. There are few mentions of them, except from a few rare Spectrobes that could talk and their Masters that translated. And… well… the closest match in description suggests that Alpha is the Spectrobe’s own word for an Ultimate form.”

Rallen looks back over at you, shocked. “No way! I mean… maybe? But if that’s true, then where’s her Geo?”

“We will search for it. For now, go! Fight the Krawl!”


	8. Nessa

During the flight to Nessa, you bring out Lancer. You need answers. You need them soon.

“Lancer, I need you to be truthful with me. What am I?”

(‘I have a question for you first. What were you thinking!?’) The Spectrobe growls. (‘Oh, don’t try to be slick. I see those bruises. Why did you do that? Why didn’t you listen to me?’)

“Look—I was drunk and my inhibitions were gone. He was drunk too. We were both very fucking drunk. No more questions. What am I, Lancer? We know I’m a Spectrobe, and an ‘Alpha’, but what does Alpha really mean?”

He seems confused. (‘Well… as a species, the Leo line is not as old as others. You would be better off asking a Mesa Spectrobe. Their kind is the oldest, as well as the wisest. My only knowledge of Alphas is that Spectrobes listen to their commands as if they are Masters, and that they have immense powers. As my father once told it to me, it is said that the great Alphas have the strength of ten thousand times ten thousand Evolved Forms, all in one mighty strike, and that even that is but a fraction of their strength. They can influence other Spectrobes simply because of this: they are the most powerful of all Spectrobes, and for this, they are like kings and must be obeyed.’)

“Why didn’t you think to tell me this earlier?”

(‘I did not want you to feel pressured to live up to your birthright. You have never trained, and your life under a foreign sun eating improper food has made you weak. There was no need for me to tell you that your powers as an Alpha may be… lesser than others. I felt it would be a blow to your pride.’)

“Is there any advice you can give me?”

(‘You are in contact with multiple Mossax. Ask them.’)

~~~

“So, Mess, what can you tell me about Alpha Spectrobes?”

The spindly creature hums a soft tune with its wings. {{They are very strong! Stronger than Mossax. Stronger than Mesathorn. Stronger than the late King Kirnon!}} You do not recognize the name Kirnon, but you don’t stop the Spectrobe from talking. {{Their kind is old! Very old! Older than Mossax and Mesathorn and the late King Kirnon!}}

“So, they were the first Spectrobes?”

{{Yes, yes! From them, all of Spectrobe-kin are descended, and it was by their will that Spectrobes would have Masters. Spectrobes alone would be too strong, they would be prideful in their powers and overwhelm this entire dimension with their burning light. With Masters, the Spectrobes would not have such ambition. Without companionship, we wither. But Alphas? No, not Alphas. Alphas live on forever and ever! In spirit, at least. Some die, then are reborn, but it is rare. Some become bonded to a Master so powerfully that their life ends in that Master’s absence. This was the fate of one or two, who are destined to resurface someday.}}

“And I am an Alpha, right?” The last comment makes you nervous. The one about Masters. “Is there any way to tell when a Spectrobe has bonded to a Master…?”

{{Hmmm… yes! I do see the peculiar light in your heart. You are rare and ancient of soul, but your memories have left you and may never return. Such was your rebirth, O Lord of Our Kind!}} Considering for a moment, the Mossax continues. {{The bond between Spectrobe and Master is complex. For us lessers, the bond is immediate and shifting. We may disobey if it is not strong, or refuse an order our heart knows to be wrong. Some Spectrobes choose a new Master if they deem so. I believe that was Lancer’s choice, to follow an ancient Alpha rather than a young and reckless Master. This, though, will not be my choice. You have great power, but it will not change my choice. Rallen is a fine Master.}}

“What happens if the bond is too strong?”

{{Then that Spectrobe is doomed to perish the day their Master falls. Their light returns to the sun of Nanairo to warm the planets they once roamed. Someday, in dire need, these souls may return to the ground to manifest as fossils.}}

“That’s not what Lancer told me. He said a Spectrobe will devolve and then petrify.”

{{That is also true. This only happens with a lesser-bonded beast, however.}}

“Is it…” You are almost as afraid to ask the question as you are of the possible answer. “Is it possible that my bond with Rallen is too strong?”

{{No bond is “too strong”, my Alpha. However, when I see your closeness with him, I am sure that you and he are entwined not just by matters of the heart, but by Fate itself.}}

Fate itself. Great. You knew there was a reason you loved space and the stars, but you didn’t think—you never _dreamed_ it would be for a reason like this.

{{Why do you dawdle, Alpha? Were you not called to destroy a Krawl? The starship has landed. Go now. There is little time.}}

~~~ 

The burning sun of Nessa is nothing to you now. You are fire and heat, after all. Even in the fiery heat, your practice exercises go well. Rallen simply watches from the shade. If the Krawl is as large as they said it is, his sword will do absolutely nothing to it.

“You’re not afraid of that thing… are you?” He seems unsure.

Drumming your fists on the ground and then jumping, you cause a great column of stone to rise into the air, carrying you with it. Thanks to your low center of gravity, the speed of the rising column does not fling you into the air. You stand almost level with the sun, your spire shading Rallen from the light of the sun. “I don’t think so. I have a good feeling about this battle. Besides, after what Mess told me, I’m pretty sure of myself.”

Rallen protests, “Don’t get cocky! And definitely don’t get reckless. I’m worried.”

“Why, because I’m fun to fuck around with?”

“No, because I care about you. Which do you think came first, the love or the lust? I’ll give you a hint: it happened in that order.”

“So you love me?”

“Were you listening? Of course I love you. It’s killing me that I can’t come fight with you. I don’t want you getting hurt out there.”

“I’ll be fine!”

“Famous last words.”

A rumble from far out in the sands alerts you that you don’t have time to argue with Rallen. The Krawl is nearly here. “Get in the starship. Go land in Lilton. I’ll handle this.”

“Wait… aren’t there ruins at those coordinates?”

“Why?”

“Explorers might be in there!”

“… aw, fuck.”

~~~

Surely enough, you find a place scattered with ruins. The ruins are becoming even more ruined by the huge Krawl. It looks like a centipede… a centipede the size of a skyscraper. You knew it would be big, but… that big?

You whistle. “Hey ugly! Down here, you creepy bastard. That’s right.” The Krawl turns its attention to you. “I’m not in the mood to screw around. I was planning on napping today away. Let’s make this quick!”

In the same motion as before, you cause a column of earth to rise into the air, taking you with it. From there, you flow with the motions, raining hell upon the enemy. The magma does little to its tough shell, and the spires you create don’t even pierce it. They are as tiny needles to its tough hide, and the magma is little more than a spray bottle to a cat.

All too soon, you realize you are outmatched.

The Krawl’s ugly jaws gnash together, scraping like nails on chalkboard, like steel against steel. It charges for you and immediately destroys your stonework pillar, knocking you to the ground.

If not for your status as a Spectrobe, such a fall would have killed you easily. However, that’s no help to you. The Krawl will surely kill you anyway. It stomps in the sand, trying to pierce you with one of its hundreds of sharp legs. It misses every time. You are too small for it to get a precise hit. Many near misses make you feel sure that today will be your dying day…

You remember the things the Spectrobes told you.

_(‘The great Alphas have the strength of ten thousand times ten thousand Evolved Forms, all in one mighty strike, and that even that is but a fraction of their strength…’)_

_{{You are rare and ancient of soul, but your memories have left you and may never return. Such was your rebirth, O Lord of Our Kind!}}_

You remember that a great power sleeps within you… and that it is time for it to wake up.

_So where is it? In my heart? In my mind? I’m distracted and dizzy…_

_I know what’s really in my heart. Nanairo! I fight for Nanairo! And… for Rallen!_

A blinding light envelops your body. The power within you causes the sand to swirl, enveloping you in layer upon layer of stone. Within that stone, you are the same. It is as if it only forms as a great suit of armor, an automaton with all the fluidity and grace of an animal. Outwardly, anyone with eyes could see that you are, in fact, a massive Spectrobe, about three-fourths of the size of the Krawl you presently fight against.

Your mighty stone paw strikes the ground. From your false throat, a roar like a million earthquakes shakes the very ground. You think that, for just a moment, you see a starship hovering somewhere over the great desert. Someone must have come to watch the fight.

The Krawl rears up, still prepared to kill. It hisses and screeches, its jaws rubbing together to produce that same horrid nails-on-chalkboard sound. It lunges at you, but its biting jaws do nothing. Your extended form is too solid, too strong. Magma blood runs through the stone veins of the ferocious animal you have become.

Once again, you bring your enormous paw upon the ground. A sharp spire of stone the size of several houses pierces the sky, and a large segment of the Krawl as well. Acidic slime pours from its wound, breaking the huge spike you created.

_For Nanairo! And for the safety of all mankind!_

Your selfish human thoughts have all but left you. Your concern for one individual has been all but replaced by your insatiable drive to destroy the darkness you see before you. Another spire, and then three more converge upon the Krawl, trapping it. Four more, smaller than the last, form a cage, scratching and piercing the horrid beast’s carapace. With one mighty leap upon the ground…

A great stream of lava rockets from the center of the cage.

The Krawl writhes, bathed in the fiery light of its inevitable doom. Its acid blood can’t save it from the sublimating force of the magma you’ve summoned, the spires you’ve created. The Krawl becomes nothing more than purple sludge and dust in the sand, an ugly stain upon Nessa’s surface.

As soon as the beast falls, your outer form melts back into sand… and you collapse into unconsciousness. You hear one final word, a combination of excited explorers’ voices as your consciousness slips away.

“Toltecton!”


	9. Genshi

You wake up in a hospital bed surrounded not by doctors, but by several explorers. They seem to be speculating on your true nature—but why? You have difficulty remembering what happened on Nessa. You remember feeling dread as an enormous Krawl tried to stomp you to death… then the sudden drive to rise up and smite it. Then you remember.

_“Toltecton!”_

You sit bolt-upright, shocking the people standing around you. Looking to the nearest explorer, you hiss, “You! What the FUCK is a Toltecton! I need answers. I need ‘em quick.”

The dusty man pulls out an envelope. “I am _honored_ that I get to be the one to show this to you. Alright, so over the last month, you have been introduced to one of every Spectrobe that we have discovered and documented so far, yes?”

“Well, yeah, and there’s also seven of them that they couldn’t introduce me to—”

“Because they are Ultimate Forms,” the explorer finishes. “Tindera, Zorna, Larrup, Voltorn, Fulvina, Artezza, and Shulla. They correspond to the planets Genshi, Daichi, Nessa, one each for Ziba’s two moons, Himuro, and Meido. This means we haven’t discovered one for Kollin, the Ziba mainland, and possibly several more parts of the enormous planet that is Nessa. However, we have been exploring many ruins—”

“Get to the point, please.”

He takes a set of pictures out of the envelope. A huge creature depicted on different ruin walls, entwined in vines and crumbling in disrepair. He points at several of them. “These are all from ziggurats and pyramids in various parts of Genshi. The glyphs that were found alongside these depictions translate to Toltecton, which we assume is either the name of the creature’s late Master, or of the creature itself. And here…”

The final picture is hauntingly familiar. The depictions in the ruins perfectly match the image of the gigantic stone beast… entwined in battle with a massive Krawl that looks like a centipede.

“…is an image we took of _you_ as you faced off with Kankorarl, a Krawl prophesied to devour every historic site on the entirety of Nessa’s surface. We cannot be more grateful that you averted that fate so that we may continue to explore the ruins and record what we find there.”

You motion for him to hand you the pictures. Taking them and reviewing each one in turn, you look up at him. “Okay, so how does this involve Ultimate Forms? There’s a bunch of pictures of me in old ruins in Genshi?”

“Do you want to see the other pictures? They might make you a little uncomfortable, but—”

“No, I want to know.”

The second envelope contains various other snapshots of walls in ruins. Engravings and reliefs of Toltecton… engaged in bloody combat with multiple enormous Krawl. One of them appears to have been caked in sand, carefully brushed away. It is an image very similar to the photograph of Toltecton destroying Kankorarl, including the cage of stone spires and enormous flow of magma.

“We have found many of these prophecies on every planet. Each one depicts Toltecton, _that’s you,_ destroying progressively larger and more difficult Krawl. It shows that you succeed every time… but the final wall does not depict you at all, only a short mention that you would battle bravely and fight with everything you’ve got. It never mentions success.”

“If I’m an Ultimate Form, where is my Geo?”

The voice that answers your question comes from just outside the door. “Don’t worry about that, we will try to find it.” It’s Commander Grant!

You point at him. “YOU! Where’s Rallen?”

“I see your priorities are in order,” he sighs. “If you must know, he hasn’t slept a wink since your incident with the fell insect you destroyed on Nessa. He’s been working nonstop to find the other Krawl depicted in the ruins that these lovely gentlemen have shown you.”

“Tell him to—actually, where’s my armor? Gimme my communications device, I want to tell him myself. Maybe he’ll listen.”

One of the explorers looks around the room and finds the part of your armor to which the Prizmod and communicator are attached. You dial in the correct frequency and send an urgent transmission.

It opens almost immediately. [Hey! You’re awake! How long have you been awake!? I’ve been worried sick ever since they said you were sent to the hospital, I can’t imagine--]

“Slooooow down hotshot. I’ve barely just opened my eyes and like, at least four different guys in unwashed khakis and wide-brimmed hats shoved a shitload of really old photographs of me right into my face. Where’re you at right now?”

[Uhhhh,] he pauses. [Okay, so, that’s a great question. Probably somewhere very deep underground on Genshi. I’ve got a Spectrobe leading me around so I don’t trip on anything that’ll kill me nor get caught in a maze, so don’t worry. In fact, I’m down here looking for something that we don’t even know exists and may or may not be yours.]

“Quit beating around the bush.”

[When we found out for sure that you’re an Ultimate Form, we started looking for your Geo immediately. So far? Plenty of traps, lots of puzzles, found a rare Spectrobe fossil, but no Geo.]

“Ain’t a Geo used to summon an Ultimate Form? You don’t gotta summon me, so why bother?”

[…they can also be used to bring an Ultimate Form back to life or back from a long hibernation. If something goes wrong, I _need_ to have that Geo on hand, because no fucking way am I gonna let these Krawl keep you floored.]

“Thanks for caring, I think?”

[Please stay safe up there. Don’t exert yourself and DEFINITELY do not fight any Krawl. Not until we figure out what flips the fight switch that turns you into Toltecton then sends you into a three-day coma.]

“Wait, how long?”

[You’ve been down for three and a half days,] he says softly.

“And you haven’t slept at all?”

[…maybe…]

“Once you get out of those ruins, take a nap. That’s mandatory. You uh, have to listen to me, because something, something, Alpha Spectrobe. I said so.”

[Hey, one more thing.]

“What’s up?”

[I love you, and not one second of these last three and a half days has been spent without you on my mind. As soon as we get ourselves in order, we’re going out for sushi again.]

“Don’t expect the night to end the same way it did that day, alright?”

[Wouldn’t want it to. Felt a little bad about what I did to your back. Okay, byyyeee…]

You shake your head when he hangs up. “For fuck’s sake. Sentimental goofball…”

The explorers seem a little shocked. “I feel like I’ve just heard something I wasn’t supposed to hear…”

Oh shit, they’re still there. “Uhhh, don’t worry about this. None of your business.”

Commander Grant grumbles. “You’re not going to listen to him about the Krawl, are you?”

“Hell no I ain’t. I got some big bad bastards to kill, why would I hesitate?”

~~~

You look at one of the photographs you have been given. It depicts the lush forests of Genshi being terrorized by some kind of hivemind swarm of dinosaur-like Krawl. Each of them looks only slightly different from the others, and there are five in total. In the engraving, each one is half the size of Toltecton. You assume this will hold true in the fight as well, meaning it would be bad to let them swarm around you.

The picture shows you with a pair of flaming wings outstretched, supported by a framework of spires of earth. Apparently, you can fly if you must. Five spires of earth surround you, a Krawl impaled on each one. Perhaps caused by a heavy stomp? But so far, you’ve only been able to produce one each time you hit the ground. Maybe it will work if you strike the ground on all fours, with your tail bent down to form the fifth strike?

You wander the forest of Genshi, eliminating the smaller Krawl that you come across here and there. You come across many clearings caused by Krawl, places where messy craters served as salad bowls for Krawl devouring every tree they could find before moving on to the next patch of old-growth trees. Apparently, the older something is, the more they want to eat it. History tastes good or something.

_I hope they don’t bother with the ruins Rallen is in._

It finally occurs to you that you might have to find another ruin before the Krawl appear. After all, that’s where Kankorarl was. You read the name glyphs of the five beasts in the old photograph.

_Imol, Verd, Hyda, Tera, Voli._ In order, they are red, green, blue, brown, and yellow. You assume it has something to do with properties, but you don’t know what the brown and yellow could possibly be. You’ve only ever heard of Corona, Aurora, and Flash. Either way, you can hardly wait to add those five names to the list of casualties.

Eventually, you come across a ruin… and see the patrol cruiser parked outside. _This must be the ruin that Rallen is exploring. God, it’d be awful if—_

You hear chittering and screeching from the trees. Crashing and crunching of trunks being broken… they’re here!

The mighty red monster Imol stomps upon the ground. The bricks of the ruins crack under its weight. If it stomps too hard, it might cause a cave-in!

“Absolutely fucking not!”

Imol turns to look at you, its ugly teeth clicking together. It calls Verd and Hyda to its side, who then call out Tera and Voli. It seems they work together. In the few moments you have for a game plan, you can see that Imol can contact Verd and Hyda, and that Verd and Hyda can contact Tera and Voli, respectively. It’s not a hivemind, it’s a chain of command!

_Clearly I should take out the head first! Forget what I saw in the photograph!_

Just before you can square up for the fight to come, you hear a voice from the entrance of the ruins. “What are you doing here!? Go home!” Rallen has spotted you. “What did I say about—”

Imol barks. Verd nods, then turns to face Rallen. Uh oh. Danger!

“Not on my watch!” You cut right to the chase, dousing Imol in a burst of magma. The magma does nothing, simply splashing against its rotten hide. You try a spire instead. It’s hardly a pinprick against the thing’s hide, but its screech does call Verd back from attacking Rallen. Safe… for now.

“All five of you! That’s right, who’s the center of attention? Not that guy! Come on, you want a bite of this, you toothy bitch? Come on!” You stance up and send several spikes towards its belly in rapid succession, but only a few reach up, and none of them scratch Imol at all. Your strength had apparently been depleted.

“Stop! They’ll kill you! Get in the starship and get out of here!”

“Not a chance, Rallen! I was destined for this.” You try your hardest to imitate what you did on Nessa, filling your mind with thoughts of what you’re out to protect.

_If I don’t slay these Krawl, they may destroy everything in sight and then even more. They will deface Nanairo and leave Genshi unrecognizable, a dying planet like Earth, devoid of green and covered in the smoke of a thousand extinct volcanoes…_

A rage like no other builds up in you, as a lit fuse activates a firework. The savage spirit of Toltecton knows when it is needed, and knows the time is now. Stones rise all around you and form the shell you once wore before, the rock becoming infused with lava and life… your life.

~ Surprise! Rallen’s Perspective

Toltecton rises, a growl like a hundred earthquakes emanating from her. Where the woman I love once stood, now stands an immense creature almost twice the size of the Krawl around her. With a body like a panther (but not quite), claws like the talons of an eagle, and a face like an enormous serpent, she looks almost exactly like the depictions in the ruins, as if they had simply painted a still-life of her. I thought all those fancy shapes were just the ancient art style, but no, she really looks like that. All along her stony form runs a hundred and one veins of lava, interrupted here and there by strange red markings like the ones on the ruin walls. Two huge horns sit upon her head.

She is magnificent. I’ve never seen anything like her.

At the same time, I wonder why the hell she’s doing this. I told her to sit still and wait until she recovered, but then again, it is very much like a Spectrobe to completely ignore me in favor of what they feel like doing. I’m not trained enough or something like that.

I know that these Krawl are just too big for me to fight, and besides, getting in the crosshairs now could be very dangerous.

The red Krawl pounces for Toltecton’s face only to be bitten very powerfully. Fire emanates from her enormous jaws, fire so fierce that it melts the Krawl’s entire leg off. The blue and green Krawl rush to their companion’s aid, with the brown and yellow ones following close after. She slaps them away like they’re nothing, the yellow and green ones falling away with even heavier damage than the rest. I can only stand back and watch as she tries to fend off five Krawl at once…

But it is a losing battle. I can tell from just one look. I remember seeing the exact tactic the Krawl are using, and if she can’t manage some kind of all-around attack, she’s going to be bitten and scratched to dust.

What can I do but shout out and hope she listens? “That’s not working! You can’t fight just one at once, the other four will keep giving you hell! You need to hit them all at once!”

Her cinder eyes fixate on me for a half second before she once again focuses on the enemy. With a low sweeping strike, she trips all five with her tail, attempting to stomp their heads before they rise. It doesn’t work the first time, and the second time, they leap over her tail like it’s a jump rope. They learn quickly—such is the nature of the Krawl. Every wave of them gets smarter and stronger than the last, and I’m starting to wonder if there will come a day when we won’t be able to win anymore.

At some point, she apparently realizes her tactics are getting her nowhere. In a fit of rage, she roars indignantly at the sun, a sound unlike any I’ve heard. It sounds as if the ground itself is screaming in anger. Digging her claws into the earth, she summons up the strength for something else entirely. Two spires of stone rise from her back, which unfold into long spikes that look like the frame work of wings. Fiery lava leaks from crevices in the spikes, forming two enormous wings. She takes off effortlessly, curling her tail beneath her…

Then coming down upon the earth with incredible force, causing a dust cloud and tremor rivaled only by the takeoff of the Nessa ruin starship. When the dust clears, there stands Toltecton, surrounded by five enormous spires of stone. On each one, a Krawl dies bleeding purple ooze, impaled through the heart with incredible precision.

Just as soon as the Krawl stop squirming, Toltecton’s wings fold away, and she begins to dissolve away into dust and stone. Lying inert on a rock… there she is!

~ And we’re back!

You rub your head. Piloting that giant stone monster is horribly difficult, and the last stretch of the fight took a blow to your pride. You thought you could freestyle it, but there’s no teacher quite like prophecy. Rallen shouting instructions was only encouragement.

“You’re so stupid. I thought I was the reckless one!” Rallen takes you down from your spot atop a rather large rock. You always have been just astonished at how strong this guy is. “How are you feeling? Can you hear me? How many fingers am I holding up?”

You manage only a couple of words. “Overbearing jerk…”

“Alright, alright, you can curse me out as much as you want later on, after you’re recovered. Save your breath, we’re getting you out of here. You scared me half to death.”

“Mm-hmm, and they beat me half to death.”

He shudders. “Don’t remind me.”


	10. Kollin

“You’re taking a break.”

“No I ain’t.”

“You HAVE to. I said so.”

“That don’t work on me anymore.”

Rallen is very intent on having you rest for a week. After a couple talks with Commander Grant, you had moved into Rallen’s quarters entirely. Not because he’s your lover, but because you are a Spectrobe and Spectrobes are Rallen’s area of expertise, meaning you’ll be staying there regardless of what happens.

“Look at these photographs. There are way more Krawl that need to die.”

“They’re not going to show up immediately. If the Commander calls us, we’ll go. Until then, you’re gonna take a shower to get that awful Krawl dust off of you, you’re gonna get bundled up nice and cozy, and you’re damn well gonna have a self-care day.”

As much as you’d love to believe you can resist him, it gets very, very hard to do that when he gets especially commanding.

“Are you gonna take a break with me?”

“Nope. Got some ruin-diving to do.”

“Damn, can’t even spend a little time with me?”

Those words seem to get through to Rallen a little bit. He sighs, sitting next to you on the bed. Holding you close, he whispers, “It’s not like that, okay? You know it’s not that. I have to find that Geo before something bad happens, _not after._ ”

You return the embrace. You could swear you’ve never been so happy to just get a hug. “If I’m taking a break for a week like you tell me to, there’s hardly anything that can go wrong. I don’t wanna be sitting around bored, you know. And right now, anything but a good fight sounds super boring.”

He laughs. “Gotten a taste for the art of war, huh? I remember being that hot-blooded after my first few wins. I mean, your success streak is outstanding compared to mine, but still.” He runs his fingers through your hair, trying to get you to relax. “It’s alright, I totally get it. But you still can’t be out fighting. We can get some video games for you if that’ll help, you know, the violent kind. Monster Hunter, probably.”

“I’ve played a lot of fighting games. Nothing like the real thing.”

“Finally, someone who gets it.” He kisses you gently. “Just promise me you’re not gonna run off and do something reckless.”

“Oh, you mean like you?”

“Hey! I’m not that reckless. You’re a total nutcase, chasing down those enormous Krawl. THAT’S reckless. You gotta tone it down—”

Your Prizmod, still embedded in the wrist section of your suit (sitting on a chair in the corner) starts going off like crazy. Lancer lets himself out. What incredible timing. Without being warned or asked, Lancer gets between you and Rallen and then weighs you down with his paws.

(‘Bad Alpha. Sit, stay, roll over. Hehehe.’)

“Lancer! Seriously? I want to go—”

Lancer growls. (‘Nope. Even Alphas need rest. Don’t worry Rallen, I’ll keep an eye on her. Yeah, tell him I said that.’)

“… Lancer told me to tell you not to worry and that he’s gonna keep an eye on me.”

“Thanks, man, I appreciate that.” Rallen pats Lancer’s head. “Make sure she doesn’t exert herself. I’d get specific with my instructions but I really don’t have the time.”

(‘That’s fine. Good luck.’)

Rallen promptly leaves. Always in a rush, that man.

You sigh. “Lancer, you’re mean.”

(‘Am I? I couldn’t tell.’) This cat is in a ridiculously good mood today. You can tell by the tone of his purrs that there’s something going right in his life.

“What’s got you so cheerful?”

(‘Being wrong.’)

“…huh?”

(‘Wrong about you and Rallen. Don’t forget, I could watch from your Prizmod. I saw it all. You were getting shredded and Rallen stayed back. No, in fact, he even helped you from the sidelines. Set you straight and everything. That’s not just some little fling there. He REALLY cares.’)

“But I don’t LIKE orders…”

(‘Do you think you would have won that fight without them?’)

“…no.”

(‘Do you like living to see another day?’)

“Of course.”

(‘Then you like orders. Problem solved.’)

“I thought you Leopuba were supposed to be logical. That sounds like a fallacy to me. If A then B must be true? That’s no proper argument.”

(‘Oho, so you’re skilled in debate? Is that it? Well, you won’t be bored here at all then…’)

~~~

“I’m home!”

At the time Rallen finally returns, you’re playing blackjack with Lancer and Mess. You had a good hand, but you drop it immediately to greet Rallen. “Hey there! You big jerk, you left me alone all day.”

“I know, I’m terrible. I love you, though.”

{{Really? Right in front of my blackjack?}} Mess seems displeased.

Lancer retorts, (‘Yeah, Mess, like you haven’t been getting real flirty with that other Mossax. Mind your business.’)

{{Ugh.}}

“What are they arguing about?”

“Mess is displeased by our dumb sappy romance.”

“Good for him, I do not care.” Rallen hugs you tightly. “It’s really nice to see you again.”

“Okay, but it’s hardly been a day?”

“Hey, you’re the one who wanted to hang out, aren’t you?”

(‘Anyway, now that loverboy is home, I’m outtie.’) Lancer gently paws at the Prizmod, returning to it.

Mess follows after him. {{Rrrright behind you.}}

You exchange a look with Rallen. “So… we’re alone, then?”

Rallen catches on quickly. “Don’t get any ideas. You’re _resting_ this week, remember?”

“I thought you were on the Planetary Patrol, not the Thot Patrol.”

“Oh, no, I didn’t say not at all. Just not yet.”

“…how about now?” After a long day of not having human companionship, you’re feeling particularly… ‘lonely’.

Rallen laughs. “Really? Even after what I did to you last time?”

“I showered, I swear.”

“I’m not worried about that.” He turns to lock the door like last time. “But after what you’ve been through recently, I guess you _are_ pretty resilient, aren’t you?”

“Y-yes I am.” You know you’re definitely in for it now. You can tell from the look in his eyes that this won’t be any different from last time.

“What’s wrong, nervous?”

“Uh-huh.”

“Well, don’t worry. You won’t have to put in any effort at all. You just lie down and relax…”

~~~

After the events of last night, taking a break from fighting suddenly has so much more appeal to it. You are incredibly sore, but at least you don’t have a hangover this time.

_That’s even better when I’m sober…_

You try to sit up and stretch, but are quickly pulled back down. Apparently, Rallen didn’t have any sort of emergency call like last time.

“Mm, no. You’re staying right here.”

“I just wanna stretch out. I really don’t feel like going anywhere right now, so don’t you worry about that.” You manage to escape for a moment and stretch, but you definitely don’t take your time with it. Immediately after, you lie back down facing Rallen.

“Good morning, beautiful. Love the hairstyle you’ve got going on.”

“Thanks, my boyfriend did it for me.” You try to enjoy the few moments of silence you get to share with him before he inevitably runs off to dig around in the ruins again for a shiny object that probably doesn’t even exist.

“Boyfriend, huh?” Rallen seems almost surprised to hear it. He smiles crookedly. “And who would that be? He must be one lucky bastard.”

“Hmm, is he? I dunno, he seems to be pretty good at getting himself into dangerous situations, having run-ins with near fatal monsters, and of course, had the extreme misfortune of meeting yours tru—”

He silences you. “Oh, don’t you say it. That was no misfortune. Not ONLY are you the most amazing woman I’ve ever met, but literally _what_ are the odds that you’re one of maybe nine or ten beings in the _entire universe_ that can kill Krawl the size of entire buildings?”

“…I suppose you’ve got me there. I still don’t get how you’re okay with that.”

“Would you love me any less if I were a giant stone snake-cat-bird thing?”

“I doubt it.”

“So, there you have it.”

It doesn’t even occur to you that he mentioned love. You think very little of that now because you feel it’s true. Spectrobe Master or not—you’re starting to think you’d love him even if he were a Krawl.

“You know, that got me thinking. What was on your mind those two times I unleashed Toltecton? Was it scary?”

“I got worried. Worried sick, really, and I’m not sure if I’ll get past that.” Without warning, he cuddles up to you. “If I had it my way, I’d be Toltecton instead and you’d never have to fight another Krawl your whole life. Seeing you charge into battle is incredible… but I get so worried.”

“It’s okay. I love fighting. I never got any exercise back on Earth, this is good for me.”

“Good for you? You went into a coma for three days.”

“And did I do that this time?”

“…no.”

“That means I’m getting better. I just have to practice. I’m lucky I found out how to flip the switch as it is. Can you imagine how hard a fight would be if I didn’t know what to do?”

“What DO you do?”

“I think of Nanairo. Of all of mankind. I think of how I want to protect this place.” You close your eyes, contemplating. “Earth was completely ruined. So polluted, you’d think Krawl came to trash the place, but it was all the fault of humans. I know that humans can’t do half the damage Krawl do. When I think of Nanairo being _worse off_ than Earth, that’s when the rage comes. That’s when Toltecton takes over.”

“…that is incredible.”

Your lazy morning discussion is interrupted when both yours and Rallen’s communication devices go off. Another emergency transmission.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.” He gets out of bed and grabs his, not bothering to fix his hair nor even check who the transmission is from before opening it. He says tersely, “Can I help you!?”

[Don’t take that tone of voice with me, young man!]

“…Aldous!? I haven’t heard from you in ages!”

[That is because I’ve been out looking for that thrice-bedamned Geo while you lie around with your little girlfriend! Who is she, anyway!? Is she more important than an Ultimate Form? You AND her have got some explaining to do!!]

Rallen laughs. Looks like he’s going to be very happy to be the one to tell Aldous he’s wrong.

[Why are you laughing! You should be looking for the Geo!]

“Don’t worry, Aldous. There is NO ONE who wants to find that thing more than I do. Hey, _Toltecton,_ wanna say hi?” Rallen hands you the communications device.

You speak to the bushy-faced, grumpy old dude on the other end of the line. “You got a lot of nerve, ya know. Geo this, Geo that. I don’t gotta be summoned around, I’m right here.”

[That’s nonsense. That’s blasphemy! You’re a human! What is this farce, Rallen!?]

“Cool your jets. Geez, would it really be so hard to ask Commander Grant?”

[Fine!] You hear the irate gentleman dial in another frequency. [Commander Grant! Rallen’s girlfriend is claiming to be an Ultimate Form!]

You hear Commander Grant shout something back at Aldous. [She claims that because it is true! I’ve witnessed it firsthand. She transforms.]

[…you’re joking.]

More shouting. [We’ve even got recordings! Don’t be a fool. I’ll send the videos your way and you see for yourself!]

[…yes, I’ll view the footage right away.]

“What’s the matter, Aldous? Not so worried about our little ‘practical joke’ now, are you?”

[My… sincerest apologies. Do I address you as Toltecton or do you have a human name as well?]

“I do,” you confirm, telling him your name.

[Well… er… I suppose you’ll be glad to know, then, that we are making good progress on finding your Geo. You may not see it as necessary, but--]

“No, go ahead, I’ve already been told of its importance. Rallen, can you take your transmission back? I’m really thinking about catching another half hour of rest before we gotta start running around and killing Krawl and shit.”

Rallen nods. “So, there you have it. See? Never mind the Geo, I’ve got the whole Ultimate Form right here next to me. Safe and sound, she’s taking a rest after her hard work. So, don’t call us back for a few hours or so, please. It’s nothing against you.” He hangs up right away.

“Whew, you sound super mad.”

“I didn’t like his tone.”

~~~

Unfortunately, your week of rest had to be postponed. No time to rest with massive Krawl on the loose and no explanation for it. There’s training to be done and secrets to be revealed. And, of course, you got to meet this Aldous fellow in person.

“Hmm, yep. You’re a Spectrobe Master, aren’t you? But not a very commanding one.”

“Er, yes. My abilities have dulled with age.”

“No, I think it’s all in your attitude. You don’t have the fire in your eyes a Master ought to have. You should work on that. Where’s your bloodlust, huh? Your latent desire for Krawl massacre? You gotta think like a Spectrobe to control a Spectrobe.”

He facepalms. “When an Ultimate Form scolds me, I ought to listen, huh?”

“That’s right. Good on you, Aldous, I know Rallen wouldn’t have half the humility you’re displaying, but I think his bull-headed attitude is half the reason his Spectrobes (including myself) like him so much.”

“…judging by those marks on your neck, I’d wager you do a lot more than just ‘like’ him.”

“Mind your business,” you hiss. Flustered, you pull up the collar of your shirt.

Aldous shakes his head. “You’re right, that was a bit out of line. I apologize.”

“I’ll pretend it didn’t happen.”

“Let me change the subject.” He pulls up a hologram device. The 3D technology in Nanairo will probably never cease to amaze you. The hologram depicts you thrashing the shit out of Kankorarl, the fell centipede. “This is you, isn’t it?”

“Yup.”

“I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What is it?”

The old man sits on the ground and motions for you to sit with him. You humor him.

“Please regale me with the story of this fight.”

“Alright, if that’s what you want.” You think back to that day about a month ago when you destroyed that Krawl. “I tried to fight it as a human. I thought I could. I didn’t account for the fact that that Krawl was massive, you know. Tried the lava trick, didn’t do a thing. Tried the earth spikes, no dice. I was losing. It almost killed me, too.” Aldous seems absolutely enthralled with your story. “I tried to bring to mind the reason I was fighting this thing at all. I thought of Nanairo… I thought of Rallen. I knew that I had to protect this star system, but I was at a loss as to how. It happened so quickly. I was full of rage, I wanted Kankorarl dead, and I wanted it dead immediately. The sand around me whipped up into a tornado and covered me in several layers of stone. Before I even knew what was going on, I was an enormous beast, not a human. In that form, slaying Kankorarl felt like child’s play. I caged it and bathed it in a stream of magma that could rival an eruption on Genshi.”

The events play back in the hologram exactly as you describe them. Aldous sighs. “I’d have paid my last gura to see that in person, I swear it.”

“How about next time I kill a giant Krawl, you just make sure you’re there to see it?” It seems like the most reasonable thing to do, after all.

“I would not be a distraction?”

“Nothing’s a distraction when Toltecton is in control. All I see is the Krawl, and all I feel is the blazing desire to kill it.”

“That is… outstanding.”

“It comes naturally.”

“Could you… tell me about the other fight as well?”

You nod. “That one was quite a ride. I was running around looking for those guys. I came across tons of ruins… and then the one I finally showed up at had the patrol cruiser in front. I got really worried… you know, because I knew Rallen was running around in there.”

“I was also wondering about that…”

“Hmm?”

“What is it about him specifically that you Spectrobes are so drawn to?”

You laugh. “The Master part is a natural compulsion. It’s an instinct, nothing more. But me? I love him for who he is, not what he is. He could be just some guy and his personality would still have me falling all over myself to be near him.”

“…outstanding. Go on.”

“Alright. So yeah, of course my luck would be like this, but just as soon as I saw the cruiser, that big Krawl—the one named Imol, you know, the red one—came leaping out of nowhere like some psychotic jumping spider. Stomped on the ruins a whole bunch and nearly caved ‘em in. I yelled to distract it, and the other four came charging in.”

“You could have died!”

“So? Anyone could in a Krawl attack, what’d you expect? And don’t forget, I’m an Ultimate form,” you say smugly, all too happy to flaunt that incredible title.

“Of course… my apologies.”

“No big deal. So yeah, just as soon as I had distracted them, Rallen started shouting at them too. Now THAT was not his brightest idea, because Imol sent the green one, Verd, to kill him. Now, I wasn’t about to let that happen, so I tried to imitate what I did in the desert. You know, thoughts of what I’m out to protect. And it turned out that’s exactly what works. Open up that second video, please.”

Aldous does as you ask. The video starts with you, a tiny speck in the hologram, being surrounded by a swirling tornado of stone and dirt, forming Toltecton once more. Imol pounces at your face and you bite his leg off.

“It all happened in a blur, like with Kankorarl. I shredded this dude’s leg, then the other four went apeshit trying to surround me. I was trying to take them on one at a time, but divide and conquer doesn’t work when you’re surrounded like that.”

“You know, I understand that all too well. But, I will save my war stories for later. I want to hear yours first.”

“Yea, alright, sounds good. So, where was I…”

“You were surrounded.”

“Surrounded, yes! And they were starting to scratch me up pretty bad, I couldn’t get a visual on any of them. Rallen started shouting that I have to hit them all at once, and well, I knew he was right. I just wanted to see if I could do it my own way.”

The hologram shows as you sweep the five Krawl to the ground with your enormous tail, then try to stomp their heads in. You fail on each one. It shows you trying again, but they all leap over your tail. Aldous looks horrified.

“By the Light, they’re getting smarter. They’re learning fast.”

“Yeah, which sucked a lot. I finally realized I couldn’t do it my own way, so I re-enacted the scene I saw on that photograph in the ruins.”

“The one with your wings spread wide, and five spires of earth, one spearing each Krawl?”

“Yup. And lo and behold, it worked like a charm. It was like fate dictated that it would work the first time I tried it. Or maybe I was always meant to be as foolish as I was, and it only ended up like that BECAUSE I tried to do it my way first.”

“My bet is on the latter. If you had done it right away, you might have missed, as none of them would have had their injuries to slow them down.”

A transmission interrupts your interesting talk with the old man. Who will it be this time? Commander Grant bothering you with another Krawl to kill, you assume. You would far rather take today resting, ironically.

[Hey, sweetheart!]

“Oh, Rallen! What’s up?”

[Just checking in on you. Aldous ain’t giving you grief, is he?]

“Naw, we’re just sharing war stories. His are way cooler.”

Aldous objects, “She is lying. She’s wrong. Mine are not cooler.”

“Don’t flatter me. Do you want me to end up developing an ego? Spoiler alert: you really don’t.”

[Yeah, Aldous, don’t let her be like me.]

“You put yourself down again and I’m gonna come kick your ass, love.”

[Last time you said that, I threw you.]

“Yeah, and the last time I said that, we also didn’t know I’m a whole ass Spectrobe.”

[…touché.]

“So what are YOU up to, then, space cadet?”

[Still looking for your Geo.]

“Got any leads?”

[Actually yes.]

A wave of excitement passes through you. About fucking time. You can’t wait to lay eyes on this weird, mystical, horribly elusive object. And something else as well has been lurking in your mind… why is it that every time you or someone else is seeking this thing in an old ruin, giant Krawl show up to stop you? It’s almost like they’re trying to stop you from finding it.

[We know it’s somewhere on Genshi and that it’s more likely hidden in a mountain range than a jungle. Old sources suggest it’s called the Molten Geo and that it’s unique from the other seven.]

“How so?”

[It is more well-protected and well-hidden than all of the others because it can do a whole lot more than just auto-activate your Ultimate Form powers. All these nerd scientists at headquarters are flipping out because they think we might be on the verge of an information breakthrough about Ultimate Forms, and you know, that’s pretty significant seeing as we know next to nothing about them.]

“Do they have any big theories?”

Aldous has apparently been leaning over your shoulder the whole time and listening intently. “Yes, tell us! It’s been far too long since something new has been revealed.”

[Okay, so, you know how we were all super confused as to how a Spectrobe can look like a human? Well… it’s possible that the other Ultimate Forms are human too, and that’s why trying to evolve and Evolved Form into one doesn’t work.]

Aldous jumps up. “Really!? But where could the other seven be hiding?”

[That’s what we don’t know… along with a lot of other stuff we don’t know, of course. We’ll just have to wait and see…]


End file.
